Global Winds
by Zoram Selrof
Summary: Sequel to Hellfire Period. The new year 2010 has begun and Neo Gospel's back at it: this time around their main strategies focus on generating frustration and trying to spark in-fighting between the good guys. Other parties seek to achieve further power by attempting to steal info and tech from both sides as well... Something's being plotted by the enemy... Rated M for lemon.
1. Chapter 1: Training

**Global Winds**

 **By Zoram Selrof**

 **Chapter 1: Training**

11:51 AM (Japan Time), Saturday January the 13th, 2010...

"... Charge Shot!"

"Roll Arrow!"

"Sonic Boom!"

"Scope Gun!"

"Hah!"

"CF" Netto, "CF" Blues, "CF Laika, "CF" Roll and Zero were rushing through a street in a city somewhere filled with rubble, improvised barricades, weapons and, above all, Viruses: the skies were gray and rumbled as if a storm was about to begin: "CF" Netto shot a Charge Shot at a Fire Dragon that was flying for him, hitting its forehead and piercing through the head thus deleting it: "CF" Blues swung his Neo Variable Sword and a Sonic Boom sliced a Garuu in half as it was about to shoot fireballs at him: "CF" Laika took aim and shot his Scope Gun: the blast pierced through a bat-shaped Virus that was flying towards him: "CF" Roll formed a crimson and black arrow that stabbed a Mettool's right arm thus making it let go of the pickaxe: Zero swung his blade and generated Sonic Booms as well to delete some Viruses.

"How's the status like over there, Alpha Team?" Someone asked over the radio.

"We're advancing. I guess we'll be at the rendezvous point in another couple of minutes." "CF" Laika replied.

"Did you find anything over there?" "CF" Roll asked.

"Not really. Save for Viruses. And a doodle of Gravity Man signed "Zoan Bright Man – sama"…" The caller reported.

"Why don't they rename him Doodle Man?" "CF" Blues ironically suggested.

"Ask the guy!" The caller seemed to shrug.

"Guess that." Zero shrugged as well.

"It doesn't matter." "CF" Netto shrugged, too.

The group of 5 reached an intersection where three streets fused: the statue that had been there had been replaced by one of Cybeast Greiga and the original one had been broken into pieces scattered around the base of it: another group met up with them.

"Hey there, guys. Everything OK?"

"Sure, Nelaus."

One of the members of this group was a new "Cross Fusion" user.

This member seemed to be about the age and height of the other 4, maybe a bit taller than them.

His eyes were colored green emerald and some blonde hair popped out behind the helmet.

The helmet was navy blue coloring: it had three square dots on the ear-pads and on the middle of the forehead which were colored golden, crystal and silver from left to right: a black matrix filled the rest of the helmet's surface.

His emblem had the Alphabet "I" letter colored purple printed on its center.

On the space below the emblem and before the waist the alphabet letters "N" and "S" colored in a platinum color had been drawn: the "N" was on the left and the "S" to the right of the vertical line splitting the body in two.

His forearms' armor was different was transparent purple in color on the wrists and the Alphabet "N" letter colored green was set over it: the space over the palm had a black circle which contained a small red dot in the middle surrounded by different scales of red from dull red to crimson red.

The fingers had transparent red rings set on each one which glowed with a dull red glow.

His boots had slightly had red and black matrixes across their whole surface and they included some "eyes" (black edge, black body and a red dot) set on both sides of each boot.

"Hum. Maybe they've already left the city by now."

"It's logical, Miyabi."

"Yeah. They thought they had enough with causing some damage…"

"What's your opinion? Omega."

"Hum…"

"CF" Miyabi had been talking with the others before addressing someone next to him.

Omega was about one meter and eighty tall.

He wore a red vest over his mainly black body and red armor over his forearms and boots.

Two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots as well.

A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the forehead of his helmet which was emitting a cross-shaped flash.

His eyes' irises were blue and they displayed calm while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached until the floor.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Man! Too bad… I wanted to beat some of 'em to a pulp… Right, Bloody~ Shadowy~?"

"Sigma. Stop with the nicknames NOW or I'll piss off. FOR REAL. Got that, you moron?"

"R-roger, Commander Omega!"

"Sheesh."

Another Navi behind Omega began to joke to his partner but Omega scolded him without bothering to turn back and merely glancing over his right shoulder.

This Navi, Sigma, was about two meters tall.

He was colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area and it seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.

His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on both sides of his head and added a "demonic" look to him.

Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand which he was currently aiming at the floor in lazy manner.

"And my name's Blood Shadow. How many times do I need to repeat myself?"

Blood Shadow used red as his main body color.

He sported black shades and a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.

His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.

His right forearm was covered by a device colored red coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red.

A small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there: and, where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.

"Let's at least bust this ugly thing. Then we'll finish sweeping the area and if we confirm that there are no Zoanoroids then…"

"Careful! Charged shotgun shot!"

"Damned it!"

"Ah. So there was a mouse."

"MOUSE? ME? I'm Zoan Dark Man!"

"Like I care."

"Wha~t?"

Blood Shadow suddenly loaded his shotgun and shot to deflect a familiar black and purple axe: Zoan Dark Man became visible to his right and Omega taunted the guy as he drew a weapon.

This weapon had a pyramidal base with a rectangular hilt and produced a large green triangular energy blade that was quite transparent: Omega gripped it on the right hand and took a step forward.

"Let's go!"

Zoan Dark Man formed the axe again and flung it at Omega: he simply jumped over it and quickly flipped on the air to plunge the blade on Zoan Dark Man's chest emblem while attaching his boots' soils to his body: Zoan Dark Man groaned and recoiled as Omega jumped away: Sigma ran forward and punched him with the left fist: the blow made him get stuck in one of the walls: he growled and warped to different position.

"I alone will suffice! Greiga – sama shall promote me!"

"I wonder about that. Someone and no-one will complain." "CF" Nelaus taunted back.

"Damn it all! It's got to be Zoan Gravity Man! Always getting in the way of my promotion!" He growled.

"Not my problem. Elemental Cannon!"

"CF" Nelaus' right forearm got greenish armor over it, his left forearm formed red armor, his right boot gained extra bluish armor and the left boot was strengthened by yellow armor: energy flew out of each and formed a white spheroid: he then pushed it forward and it became a beam of energy which expanded as it flew across the space and hit Zoan Dark Man as he shot his beam at him but it was in vain: the attack formed wounds on his body apart from making fly along the street and land some meters south of the group.

"Sneak Attack!"

"CF" Miyabi suddenly dropped from above and plunged both _katana_ into the chest emblem, piercing through it: Zoan Dark Man groaned and blew up while he sheathed both blades.

"We blew up the statue in the meanwhile." "CF" Roll commented with a smile.

In effect: the Greiga statue had been blown up to pieces and scattered around: they suddenly heard someone grumbling and Zoan Gravity Man hovered down into the area.

"Enemies detected. Resistance detected. Delete. Delete. Gravity…!"

"Slow! Giga Cannon!"

"Dream Sword!"

"Mugen Vulcan!"

"Yoyo Blade!"

"Hrah! Hah!"

"UGRA~H!"

"Weak."

The 4 "CF" users and Zero attacked Zoan Gravity Man at the same time and their power was more than enough to defeat him before he could finish turning on his "Gravity Drive": the Viruses close by seemed to demoralize and ran for it while some thunderbolts began to drop down from the clouds followed by rain.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!" Some laughter ran out next.

"Whose turn is it?" "CF" Nelaus wondered.

Master Hand suddenly appeared there and made a taunting gesture but the group was far from impressed.

"Boss… Another of your "inspirations"?" Omega asked over the radio.

"No. I think it slipped here from the "open world" map… Maybe Trill programmed it to do that." A man replied.

"Well. Guess we gotta beat it if we want to finish this simulation. Let's go, guys." Omega calmly instructed.

"OK. Leave it to me. Diamond Blade!"

"CF" Nelaus drew a blade made of diamond yet the hilt was made of gold instead: he calmly jumped and swung it to cut Master Hand in two halves but they suddenly broke down into raw polygons and reformed: now both Master Hand and Crazy Hand were there.

"Alright. I didn't expect that." "CF" Nelaus calmly muttered.

"Trill's turning into a better programmer than I thought!" The man over the radio was baffled.

"Or maybe he asked Iris to lend him a hand." Omega suggested.

"Ah! That would explain it." The man agreed with the suggestion.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"Gyah, hah, hah, hah!"

"Hmmm… They must have a core somewhere… Miyabi?"

"Alright. Shadow Clone! Sneak Attack!"

"CF" Miyabi formed a copy of himself and both jumped into the air to then jump down while aiming their blades down.

"Hah!"

"Mugroh!"

"Grumoh!"

He pierced the cores of both enemies (located on the wrist area) and they exploded: the environment then began to turn into a green matrix over a blackened space before yielding to a bright white ellipsoid: the matrix became circuitry paths and energy began to travel across them for the ellipsoid: the group began to hover and all of them entered the ellipsoid: a bright white flash ensued and the Alpha Team appeared inside of a cubical metallic room filled with a "Dimensional Area": it turned off so their "Cross Fusions" got cancelled: they all picked their PETs.

"Can't say it wasn't entertaining… Right, Rock Man?"

"Yeah, Netto – kun."

Hikari Netto glanced at his PET (placed on the right arm strap) and Rock Man replied with a smile: he looked like he was close to a meter and seventy if not above by now and could be around 16 years old.

He sported his usual clothing as well.

"That Zoan Dark Man wanted to be literal, huh?"

"Yes, Enzan – sama. The man was hiding in a nearby alley."

Ijuuin Enzan chatted with Blues as he stretched: he hadn't changed at all, either.

"Is the research on the new armor-piercing rounds progressing, Search Man? We'll need them soon."

"HQ estimates another 3-4 days, Laika – sama."

"Alright."

Laika asked Search Man for information on something and Search Man provided it.

"Let's go meet up with Nelaus and Miyabi." Netto suggested.

"Sure." Enzan shrugged.

"Beware, Enzan. It's the _ninja_ diet!" Laika snickered.

"How original of you, Mr. Foreign Serviceman!" Enzan grumbled back with some annoyance.

"Oh come on. Laika… Why do you need to poke on that?" Netto sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Nature's call?" He joked.

Search Man rolled his eyes and was seemingly exasperated with his Operator's behavior: Blues was sighing in defeat as well while Rock Man grumbled under his breath.

"My, my. Let's go, guys."

Sakurai Meiru rallied them: she wore the usual vest over the shirt but instead of skirt she sported jeans and white sneakers.

They all picked their coats (Netto's was brown and Enzan's red while Laika had his Net Savior coat: Meiru's was black) which had been placed on the SE corner of the room: they put them on and then exited the room into a curved corridor having some arches, fluorescent lights on the ceiling and armored doors on both of the sides.

"Hey. Guys."

"Hey. Nelaus. You ready to go back? We're gonna meet with the class at the park. Today's a neat day."

"Sure."

Nelaus joined them: he sported a navy blue sailor's coat which he had open: below that he wore a green wool jumper and jeans: he also sported green wool socks and white sneakers.

His PET was colored golden and purple and his Navi was projecting from inside of it.

"What's your take, Isaac?" Rock Man asked.

"Wasn't too hard. But that's fine, anyway. We'll steadily increase the difficulty."

Isaac had a unique design and was about a meter and eighty tall.

His face was young and looked like a guy on his teens: his eyes' irises were purple and he was calm.

His helmet had a central ruby jewel over the forehead shaped like a cross having four triangle ends: eight lines radiated from the central of it and spread across its surface.

The helmet's main color was navy blue and it was also filled with small round and random green dots.

His ear-pads had a white edge and a reddish central body: the Alphabet "I" letter colored purple had been printed there.

His neck had a piece of armor shaped like the Alphabet "V" protecting its base before the start of the chest: it had a cyan edge which split it into two halves the insides of which were colored yellow.

His shoulders were slightly curved square pieces with brown edges, a central silver matrix and five bronze paws forming out of the southern edge which weren't even 5cm long.

His main body color was blue and a central thin purple line spread from the neck's base until his waist, being interrupted by his chest emblem which had the same design as that of his ear-pads.

Some small jade-colored pieces made of two triangles aiming in opposite directions fused at their base were set in columns along the sides of his upper body: none of them were taller than 2cm.

His waist had a belt with three converging rectangular stripes of white edges and black body.

These fused in a diamond having a gray body plus a repetition of his Navi emblem on its center.

His arms had purplish DNA imprints painted over their surface.

His forearm armor had a magenta matrix on them.

His wrists were colored in a bronze color.

His hands were blue in color too and they had a circle with a white edge the insides of which depicted the Katana "I" colored purple: some "stars" were drawn at random over the background of the symbol with no sense of order whatsoever.

His legs had some round dots set along their height which contained a drawing.

The edge was brown, the core of it was purple and eight slightly curved lines painted red stretched from the core: the gaps between each one were colored blue.

The knees contained a circling bracelet colored mahogany and having those two fused triangles on the front colored golden.

The boots were colored purple and had an eight-pointed sapphire set on the inward side just below the ankle

Eight thin indigo lines spread from each spook of the sapphire and across the boot.

Overall he was very cool and looked advanced.

"Sorry for the wait. I wanted to discuss some improvements with Omega…" Dark Miyabi joined them.

"About if it'd be possible to program Swordy Viruses with better AI… So that they become a challenge…" Shadow Man specified.

"Yay! Morning, everyone!"

"Hey. Trill. That of the Master Hand… Iris lent you a hand?"

"Yeah. Trill could make the Master Hand itself but… Making it become Master and Crazy… I couldn't! So Trill asked Iris – oneesan…"

"I didn't think it'd slip into the other VR map… I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Trill ran up to meet them from the left followed by Iris who looked a bit nervous as if she thought the others were annoyed.

"We're not annoyed at all. It was an interesting twist." Netto calmly reassured her.

"Thank you, Hikari – kun."

"By all the…! RIKKIDO~!" The earlier man's voice echoed.

"Whoa!" They all gasped.

"HDKAHFLNLKBHGJBAG!" The man growled something undecipherable next.

"Boss. What now?" Omega's voice asked with a sigh.

"That damned LIQUID!"

"What did the bastard do?"

"Filled Langley's AC system with chloroform and knocked out the whole building to then hack into the computers and steal TERABYTES of classified info! The damned…!"

"Hum. I see." Omega didn't lose his composure.

"They gassed the whole of the CIA HQ?" Netto gasped.

"Devil. The guy's gotten desperate?" Enzan gasped.

"Hmmm… No, I'd say no…" Laika rubbed his chin.

"Sounds like a pre-meditated move. The pawns stir up trouble with their hit and run like always yet… Using the distraction… He attacks a spot we couldn't predict. Typical of those stupid cowards…" Miyabi calmly guessed.

"Kyah, hah, hah, hah, hah!" A woman's voice rang out from Meiru's PET all of sudden.

"Heck. We got hacked." Roll fumed.

"Anaya. You again." Meiru fumed.

"IQ – sama! You little kittens!" The woman seemed to sneer.

"So you came to gloat. As usual. Ex – Boss."

"Hmpf! Raiden! Go and make Fatman sink in the ocean!" The woman, Anaya, sneered next.

"I'm SO impressed."

"Men stay outta this! It involves women!" Anaya hissed.

"Hmpf! Fine!"

Meiru headed back into the earlier room as if to keep the discussion between her, Roll and Anaya: the guys seemed to be unsure if they should follow them or not.

"Ex – Boss can't do more than gloating. Not like she'll show up here: and can't… Dimensional Converters don't work. And Mr. Vadous disabled the portal machine by pulling the plug: she can't hack it either. And no stealth shuttle will do either: we can detect those." Nelaus listed.

"Good points. But don't lower the guard. Despite our security and all they got us last year's summer." Netto reminded him.

"I know. But same trick doesn't work twice."

"I've been searching Melbourne but… Nothing." Miyabi told them.

"Omega did suggest they switched countries. But it'd seem Vadous is on another of his sour moods and ignores everyone else." Shadow Man sighed.

"Trying to track this hacking is pointless too: there's surely a lot of traps and dead ends in the line. Anaya wouldn't do that unless she's sure she can't be traced back." Enzan guessed.

"At least most of the readers ended up believing that "Hellfire Period" tale was a mix of real facts and sci-fi so no harm over there." Laika shrugged.

"A LEAD! MY KINGDOM FOR A LEAD!" Vadous, the man, roared.

"Calm. Down." Omega insisted.

"Like I'll get any closer!"

"Obsessing yourself with the idea that they're still in Melbourne won't get you closer to them either."

Trill had apparently shut down his audio input by now and was drawing _hiragana_ in a holographic screen belonging to Iris' PET and using the touch-pen: Iris was calmly instructing him the steps needed to draw each one and Trill looked like he was totally concentrated on that.

"Good thing Navis can shut down their audio input and hear nothing. Now's when I'd like to have earplugs at hand." Nelaus sighed.

"Can't be helped. Vadous – san is too prone to frustration and anger: seeing how it's been about a month since that of London and we haven't located them again…" Rock Man sighed.

"Bapgei was spotted in Melbourne but he only went to his aunt's farm and all attempts to trace him when he leaves fail because one of the Darkloids is close by to impede the "Committee" agents from following him. Even if we have a standby Navi close by to fight them… Bapgei gets retrieved through a "DC" hidden by a signal jammer…" Search Man summed up.

"And other times… Even if a capable Operator is on standby as well… There's yet another Darkloid to get on their way." Laika grumbled.

"And they run away: and attempts to chase them across the Cyber World end up in vain because they copy Shadow Man and use "Shadow Clone"… To top it off these clones' signatures can't be told apart from the real one and their HP is very high… Close to the HP of the real one… So it doesn't take a single blow to defeat them… Behavior and speech are a copy as well…" Isaac related with increasing annoyance.

"Huff. Shook the madwoman off." Meiru joined them.

"How did you?" Netto asked.

"I improvised: I suggested Jade Panther may actually be a triple spy working for the CIA and she got panicked. I used that distraction to shut off the channel." Meiru explained.

"Like Ocelot, huh?" Netto wasn't too surprised.

"Yeah. The idea came from there, that young Ocelot was actually a triple spy working for 3 parties…"

"Meo~w Man!" Sigma suddenly showed up there, laughing.

"Why not?" Meiru shrugged.

"Oh come on. Sigma. Now's not the time for that." Blood Shadow scolded him.

"Huff. Managed to convince Boss somehow along with Lartes to have some proper rest… Looks like he did short 15 minutes naps from time to time and didn't properly sleep… And he's lost 3 kilos!" Omega sighed.

"Say, where did Zero go to?" Shadow Man asked.

"Went to speak with your uncle, Nelaus, to confirm the info. It was on the NY Times website but I thought it might be a fabrication because the scale seemed too big… A trap to turn Boss hysterical." Omega replied.

"Ah. Wouldn't surprise me." Nelaus shrugged.

"Well! We're going on ahead to Akihara Town to scout out. Let's meet there later!" Sigma grinned.

"Don't do stupid things like bothering Number Man." Omega suddenly warned: his glare was icy.

"Y-yes, sir!" He saluted.

"I'm watching you." Blood Shadow dully reminded him.

"Sheesh." Sigma sighed.

"Max persons is 4 so… We'll have to do 2 trips. I'll go on ahead with some of you to heat up the engines." Omega had called an elevator.

"I'll go in the 2nd trip." Netto shrugged.

"And me." Meiru confirmed.

"Good. Ijuuin, Nelaus and Laika come with me. You 2 wait for the elevator to come back."

Meiru suddenly pulled Netto's left ear and he yelped.

"What was that for, Meiru – chan?" He groaned.

"A teaser." She giggled.

"What do you want now? To go see a film?"

"Oh no! It's a teaser. Next time… I'll tickle ya." She giggled again.

"No offense but I find you girls to be too complicated."

"By the way, Netto! Ms. Skull sends her greetings from 5 years ago: skulled greetings indeed!"

"Oh come on. You mean the day I got the "Roll Soul"? Still grudging that?"

"It's not a grudge! It's a reminder. Cutie bad boy." She laughed at her lame joke.

"Lovely!"

12:33 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah! Just in time. Nelaus – ku~n!"

"Hey. Aura – chan. Where are the others?"

"They'll soon come."

"OK."

"Well, well. Tamashita… Did you find the seer?"

"Huh? What do you mean, Sakurai?"

Nelaus, Netto, Saito (brown hair and emerald eyes) and Meiru walked into the Akihara City Park and met up with a girl who'd been sitting in a bench.

This girl, Tamashita Aura, had orange curly hair and blue eyes.

She sported a yellow raincoat, jeans and sneakers.

Her Link PET's emblem was a stylized "F" letter colored white and black and set against a blue background which was decorated with snow drops: the PET itself was white.

"I think that she means that Ms. Glassy… Felicia."

"Ah! Ms. Glassy… Yeah, that fake seer who we used to visit… Hard to believe she intended to turn us into dime spies!"

Roll began to talk with Tamashita's Navi, named Felicia.

Her helmet was colored olive green and it had a sapphire set into its forehead which glowed differently depending on the light's angle: the helmet included a cobalt blue matrix over its surface.

Her eyes were cobalt blue as well and two twin tails of blondish hair came out from behind her head.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt blue instead and her emblem was the same one as in the PET.

Her shoulders were anatomically correct and had ruby plating over them while her arms and elbow were colored in a mix of blue and white decorated with emerald square dots.

Her forearms were colored orange and had eight thin pink circles circling along their length.

Her legs used a mix of blue and yellow and contained diamond-shaped brown dots scattered at random.

The boots had been painted using orange color and had zigzag patterns which vertically spanned the height of them.

"Ta-dan! The President of Miss Joke & Co. has arrived! Stocks are on the rise! Rising raiser!"

"Yaito – sama…!"

"I've got news! Gorilla Man is coming to town!"

"Guts, guts. Provided by Explosive News, de guts."

"Oh come on."

"Gorilla Man? Desu?"

"It's a lame joke…"

Ayanokouji Yaito, Ooyama Dekao, Hikawa Tooru and Eboshi Shuuichi walked into the park next: Yaito was laughing at a joke, Dekao looked cocky, Hikawa sighed and Eboshi rolled his eyes.

"Karazawa isn't coming?" Meiru asked Tamashita.

"No. Apparently went with her aunt to visit her uncle. That is, a brother of her aunt." She replied.

"Alright."

"She did send me an email saying we had no right to criticize that Scherezade's coloring is inspired by the PKMN games… Because it'd seem that the TV emitted some news about the DNN takeover and Deadly Pandora… And revealed that the executives were also named after the PKMN games too…" Tamashita explained.

"True." Nelaus seemed to remember.

"Speaking of Deadly Pandora…" Meiru began.

"She'll bring you a deadly bouquet?" Yaito joked.

"How innovative." Meiru directed a scolding glare at her because she interrupted her.

"Isn't it?"

"What's that Dogly Pandora?" Dekao frowned.

"Deadly Pandora… A terrorist org! Buddies with Neo Gospel…"

"Neo Gospel…? Huh…? Who were those again?"

"Figure it out yourself. It's on YouTube too!" Netto fumed.

"What was that?"

"Here we go again." Hikawa rolled his eyes.

"Ooyama – kun doesn't pay enough attention." Eboshi sighed.

"Hey! Listen! Could it be that those guys are reusing the Deadly Pandora hideout?"

"By all the… It could be!" Nelaus gasped.

"It's perfect because they don't need to rent or buy a house and thus risk leaving a record behind… The base's energy is self-generated… And I'm sure that they steal food there and there and bring it to the base…" Isaac guessed.

"But we should be VERY discrete. We don't want them to realize and jump away." Netto warned.

"Good. We mustn't tell anyone else apart from Vadous – san and the "Committee"… We could place a mike in one of the outer walls and try to analyze the vibrations… If they correspond to echoing voices then that's our confirmation… We could just try to place a mike in the outside, close to a vent…" Saito suggested.

"There's a more ideal place… In the central hub! Near the edge of the water… I'm sure they must come out there from time to time: maybe they've got a ship parked there… Jade's own ship… I seem to remember that they didn't bother to move it from there when the police burst into the base…" Nelaus rubbed his chin.

"I don't get it." Dekao scratched his head.

"No need to! Ya just solve the Math problems!" Yaito replied.

"YIKES!" He turned white.

"Or do ya need a tutor like every year to help you clear that?" Yaito grinned and whispered.

"Oh crap!"

"Guts, guts. Gorilla Man and Gorilla Woman will marry on February the 31st." Guts Man announced.

"What a lame fake… February can only reach 29 days at the max! There's no 31st of February!" Roll fumed.

"Uh-oh. Desu." Ice Man gulped.

"Trouble… Someone build a shelter…" Glyde groaned.

"Now, now!" Roll tried to calm them down.

"Don't get depressed now." Felicia tried to encourage.

"By the way! Netto! What's Enzan up to? Huh?"

"Should I know? I dunno what he does at his company."

"KI~H! I'm sure he's plotting something!"

"Oh come on. Yaito – chan. Play fair. Or your father will scold you again… Do you want that?" Meiru sighed.

"YIKES!"

"And when will you stop with that "Miss Joke & Co." stuff?" Tamashita questioned next.

"W-well…"

"Really… And to think you're the heiress of Gabcom Inc.!"

"T-that's… Ottawa…"

"Ottawa?" The girls asked.

"Miss Ottawa said that…"

"Who's that?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's daddy's secretary?"

"Speaking of which! You didn't notice back in November and December that your house's staff had increased by 2?" Meiru questioned.

"N-no. I don't manage that!"

"Really… And that "Miss Ottawa" must be Anaya… The madwoman…"

"E~H?"

"I'd stake anything on that."

"Even a choco-banana _crepe_?" Netto ironically asked.

"Ah! T-that's, hum, well…" She got nervous all of a sudden.

"You still owe them an apology: you stuck around, didn't contribute, forced him to pay you that crepe and in the end you didn't tell him the solution to the homework. Not like he'd been skipping in purpose: he had to stop that Burner Man guy!" Roll scolded her.

"You still remember that?"

"Navis DON'T forget."

"Crap."

"And I can be dense from time to time but I DO remember that. Papa sneaking away too." Netto grumbled.

"And Rock Man had to find it." Saito fumed.

"So don't be so quick to speak like you're perfect." Both warned.

"A-alright." She gulped.

Tamashita merely lifted her eyebrows in surprise while Felicia didn't seem to be that surprised.

"We'll settle that on another day. Now we need to focus on checking out if that hypothesis is correct or not." Netto settled.

"A-alright." Meiru nervously replied.

"We should use the same strategy… To listen in and pretend we don't know where they're acting from… It's frustrating but it's better to have them located than having to search for them… And by the way… We should be careful… Because that tale of the CIA attack was a lie: they hacked into the NY Times website and made up a fake headline." Saito detailed.

"Of course, Saito – niisan. But we know how dirty they are. Let's wash them over with Mr. Clean." Netto grinned.

"Not a bad joke, Netto – kun. Good… Let's go for it!"

"Beware! Kimura's coming to town!" Yaito giggled.

"Who's that? A Rare Chip _otaku_?" Dekao eagerly asked.

"Maybe."

"I did it! I'll get a Rare Chip to beat Sigma!"

"Its name is… "And there were none"!"

"HUH?"

"Oh come on." The rest of the group (save Guts Man) sighed.

"And what does it do?" Dekao still believed on that.

"It makes the enemy vanish… It's spiriting away!"

"Cool, cool! When's that Kimura coming?"

"Tomorrow at _mitternacht_."

"Tomorrow at what?"

"Midnight."

"Where, where?"

"The backyard of your house!"

"I did it! I'll be a Net Savior and protect MY Meiru – chan!"

"MORON!"

SMACK!

"UAH!"

Meiru suddenly smacked Dekao and then directed a glare that could kill at Yaito: she ran off while Meiru and Tamashita fumed.

"I'm not your possession! Moron!"

"Bua~h!" He ran off too.

"You 2… You're behaving like Ex – Boss wants, you know?" Nelaus sighed.

"Ah… T-that's…" They gasped.

The guys sighed while the girls timidly looked away.

 _Damned Ex – Boss. You want us to fight each other but we won't let you!_


	2. Chapter 2: Neo Gospel attacks

**Chapter 2: Neo Gospel attacks**

08:18 AM (Japan Time), Sunday January the 14th…

"… Become dust of the Universe! Cosmo Gate~!"

"KIE~H!"

"Sheesh. Lovely. Just LOVELY. Right, Martin?"

"You needn't tell me, Charles."

"Heh, heh, heh. You mice can't stand to Neo Gospel's power."

"Don't tell me. And you rely on a rip-off to be able to fight us?"

"It's insurance."

"Loopholes."

"Who knows? College of Charleston."

"Swallow Man is gonna sue you."

"I don't think so. Twilight – sama told me to use it."

"Sheesh."

"Same for you. College of Davidson…"

"Cut the crap! I'm busy trying to beat this damned unmanned Metal Gear RAY ripped off _MGS2: Sons of Liberty_ …!"

Two "CF" users were fighting Cosmo Man and a Metal Gear RAY.

Cosmo Man, though, had a new appearance.

This appearance consisted on armor all over the body.

The armor included a full-head helmet with grayish patterns on it and one which formed the shape of a mouth: a nose-shaped form had also been included and it had two small slits for the eyes, which were yellow and lacked any irises.

The helmet's forehead had a Net Navi emblem on it as if to ID them in another manner that wasn't their own voice.

The shoulders and neck area had some red lines drawn on them: the chest armor had two large empty cavities set on each side of the chest.

A white ragged and worn cloth stretched from the waist downwards but it seemed to be purely decorative.

The arms and legs were covered in sturdy and thick black armor.

He sported a large red cloak stretching behind him from the shoulder armor and until the knees' height.

The boots were colored crimson red.

As a weapon he was handling a red-bladed sword with a black hilt.

"And my name's Charles! Quit it with the college crap!"

One of the fighters was named Charles: he had blue eyes and silver hair since some it emerged behind the helmet.

His design included red boots and forearms along with brown chest armor which had a golden cross set on the middle of it: matrixes of on/off squares colored green and blue spread across his forearms and legs.

His helmet's forehead had a blue hexagon-shaped jewel set on its center which was glowing with a pale sapphire glow: a mouth-guard having an outer golden edge and a main silver body was set over his mouth.

A backpack with two exhaust tubes colored silver and golden materialized and attached to his back while extending four red lines arching over his body.

These lines created a bluish ring around the chest emblem with four small black rectangles having a red dot on their center.

He had some extra armor coiling around his right arm too and he wielded a pyramidal energy saber (same as Omega) colored blue.

He was currently engaged in a sword deadlock with Cosmo Man in the middle of the air using his backpack: Cosmo Man merely chuckled as planetoids rained down around the harbor area they were at: "CF" Charles risked a glance at the other fighter who was trying to deal with the giant robot.

"It's got an EM field bouncing off bullets!"

"As expected! Dirtier than mud!"

"Heh, heh, heh. You're but mice… Meaningless mice! I shall crush you!"

The other fighter, named Martin, barely dodged the missiles launched by the RAY and grumbled.

He had a coat of arms – like pattern on the helmet's forehead: reddish hair came out from behind the helmet and he had brown eye irises.

The shoulders were anatomically correct and had brown leather armor over them.

His arms and elbows were of a turquoise color.

The forearms (colored dust brown) had some black crisscrossing patterns drawn into them and which looked thicker than Lander's: they glowed with a soft blue glow as well from time to time.

His main body had the Alphabet letters "M" and "B" colored red and black each and set left and right beneath the shoulders.

A set of three parallel green lines descended from beneath each letter and then joined into a thick one which ended on a waist belt having two pouches for the Colts.

The legs contained two circling orange bands set above and below the knee which had metallic gray dots drawn at random inside of them.

The boots were white: they had a faint white color like they'd worn out.

He sported a cowboy – like hat colored brown and white over his head.

The emblem was a skull colored black and with blue eyes set against a silver background.

"Try Stinger missiles!" "CF" Charles yelled.

"I'm doing that! I shoot the knees but it doesn't open the mouth!" He replied with obvious frustration.

"Sheesh."

"Struggle!" Cosmo Man laughed.

"Didn't you know that Cloud Man's about to be promoted?"

"I-impossible!" He gasped.

"To Supreme Stormy Overlord!"

"HUH? R-ridiculous!"

"And Supreme Mexican Ambassador."

"Grrrrr!" He growled.

"Did Greiga infect you?" He taunted.

"Greiga was deleted YEARS ago!"

"It's irony! Smug Mister Cosmos!"

"HMPF!" He tried to play unimpressed.

"KIYE~H!"

"Huh? Another RAY…? No way!"

A second RAY had appeared there but this one was different and had that purple "V" logo painted where the "MARINES" logo should be at: the new RAY suddenly kicked the first one and made it collapse: the first one opened the mouth but "CF" Martin took the chance to shoot a Stinger missile at the mouth: the new RAY also thrust the right arm inside and crippled the water cutter: the first RAY managed to recover and began to attack with the machinegun but it bounced off the other RAY's body.

"Hey! You piece of junk! Bite me!" A man's voice taunted.

"That's not Vadous…! Who the hell is that?" Cosmo Man demanded.

"Kir Osh. The onboard mechanic." "CF" Charles replied.

"Hmpf! The man with the funny step-brother!"

"Sheesh. How did you know that?"

"Don't underestimate IQ – sama!"

"Anaya wanted to find some skeleton in our closets to try to smear our names again? The bitch doesn't learn."

"GRRRR! Shut up! Mice will be mice!"

"Cosplayers will be cosplayers."

"CF" Charles suddenly delivered a kick to the waist and pushed Cosmo Man back before forming a Super Vulcan and turning it on: Cosmo Man gasped and began to move the blade to repel the bullets yet "CF" Charles suddenly formed a Heavy Cannon and shot a blast that impacted on the middle of the chest: it barely did any damage.

"Who else is there?" He demanded.

"The master." "CF" Charles seemed to snicker.

"Master? Vadous? Fine! I'll CRUSH you too!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"What the hell? Mugrah! Let go of me! What the hell is this?"

"I said it, no? The master… hand. Master Hand."

"Damn it all! Gruh!"

Master Hand suddenly formed there and closed thus trapping Cosmo Man inside: it began to apply force before violently throwing him at the ground face-down: he crashed there and groaned as "CF" Charles landed there as Cosmo Man got back to his feet somehow: there was an explosion not too far from there and "CF" Martin showed up there followed by the second RAY: Cosmo Man cursed under his breath.

"I upgraded the water cutter: I cut through the power core." Kir Osh's voice rang out.

"Damn it all." He hissed.

"How about you leave before I CRUSH you?" He made the RAY lift the right foot.

"Damned interlopers! Next time things will be different! Glory to Neo Gospel!"

Cosmo Man dematerialized so the "Dimensional Area" got cancelled: the RAY crouched so as to not to stand over the buildings: both "CF" users picked up their PETs and sighed in relief.

"Phew. We owe you one, Kir Osh."

"Don't mind it, Morgangantz."

"Oh come on. Call me Charles and we're at peace."

"Alright."

"I'd rather say you call the guy… Charlie~ Team!"

Charles Morgangantz was a young man who could be about a meter and eighty in height but his age was around his early 20s.

He had messy silver hair which spread slightly backwards and formed some spikes: his eyes' irises were blue.

His clothes consisted on a navy blue overcoat which had a central silver button about the waist.

His coat then opened to expose his legs although it covered the rear of them.

He wore a black shirt beneath the overcoat plus black fingerless gloves on his hands: he also sported black jeans and sneakers.

The right shoulder contained blackish armor with an orange-colored edge and a silver button right over it which seemed to help it be gripped to the shoulder: three circles were then drawn on his right sleeve before a triangular piece of armor expanded over the hand: its main body was black too and it had orange edges.

His PET was colored silver and brown and had an emblem: it was a perfect golden-colored cross which was drawn inside of a silver circle having a brownish edge.

"You're one to talk, Dave~…"

"Davis, not Dave."

Davis, his Navi, had a deep brown bodysuit and he appealed as being about a meter and eighty tall in height.

His eyes' irises were chestnut brown and his face seemed to be shaped after a man on his early 20s: he currently displayed some slight amusement.

His helmet's color of choice was red: and so were both of his boots and his forearms.

The helmet had the _kanji_ for "seigi" or "justice" written in a golden coloring vertically across his forehead's height.

The Navi seemed to wear a vest over his chest armor colored silver: this vest had bronze edges: it also had the Alphabet character "D" colored golden set on each side of its body.

His arms contained four thin brownish stripes running down the north, south, west and east side of them until they drew four circles on the wrist. His forearms had extra armor over it colored in a grayish color plus a small red dome inside of each palm.

The legs' length had been designed to include a network of patterns interconnected by some nodes which were reminiscent of human nerves: the boots' front edge was shaped like a triangle and so was the heel: they apparently served as close-quarters combat weapons.

"OK. You alright, Blackdesu?"

"Somehow…!"

The other guy, Martin Blackdesu, looked around a bit younger than Charles by one or two years and shorter by about 4 to 5 centimeters.

He had unkempt reddish hair and brown eye irises which currently depicted slight annoyance.

He sported a golden-colored sleeveless vest which was open and he had a black t-shirt underneath it

He also wore blue jeans with a modern-looking double-row belt.

He had an arm strap for a Link PET on his right arm: the Link PET was colored in camouflage colors.

"Heh! The _sheriff_ sent the foreigner back to the Arizona deserts!"

"Lander… Don't take your look too literally…"

"Heh! Don't worry! All's under control!"

"I hope it is."

Lander wore a Mexican-style hat over his brown dust – colored helmet which also had some random blue and black dots scattered around it: his eyes' irises were brown.

His main body was colored navy blue and he had an open blackish vest over the torso: he exhibited a _Sheriff_ 's star on the right side of his torso which glowed.

His shoulders were anatomically correct and they had brass plating.

The arms' length and the elbows were colored brown too and his forearms were green with two orange circling bands on them: his wrists had metallic bracelets on them.

He sported a black leather belt with two Colt revolvers on it along with bullets on his waist.

His legs were also colored brown.

He had jeans over them which ended at the start of his boots.

The boots were colored black: they had blue and brown dots across them.

"Spending the last month updating this junk was worth it. Problem will be if that Twilight rascal brings out his super cheat version."

"Yeah. Let's save it up for special occasions."

"OK… Boss!"

"Got it."

A large "portal" colored purple formed in front of the RAY so Kir Osh had it step inside and vanish from the scene: Charles and Martin then began to walk away: Martin's PET beeped and Meijin came onscreen.

"Hey. Meijin."

"Did you repel the enemy?"

"Of course. Wasn't easy."

"Didn't expect it to be, anyway."

"You've kept the strict checks?"

"Of course. No more morons. And then there were none."

"Heh! And then there were a ton of 'em!" Lander made a parody.

"Now, now." Davis sighed.

"Don't worry, Davis! All's under check!"

"I hope so. You tend to get too cocky from time to time. And you mustn't forget to work on your reflexes." Davis reminded him.

"I know that. Man. At least these rascals have quit using the damned self-destruct clone thing!"

"Don't take it for granted. I'm sure it's a trick to make us forget our counter-measures. Always be on your toes: they could use it at any instant…" Davis warned.

"Fine." He turned serious.

"Anyway. We managed to get 3 new employees so at least we can distribute the work in a better manner…" Meijin was telling Martin in the meanwhile.

"Sigma didn't bother you either?"

"Omega took care of that. Problem is…"

"Higure – san?"

"Yeah. He always says he sees UFOs each Saturday night and thinks we've got UFO radars. But I always tell him those antennas are part of the "Dimensional Generator"… But he's on his world."

"Really… Hard to believe his store holds on."

"Guess it's that Shuuko girl who manages things. She is shy but at least she doesn't do weird stuff like Higure…"

"It's been confirmed that that of the CIA was a lie, right?"

"Totally confirmed. And they've increased security too."

"Good. Well then. I'll write the report and dispatch it as usual."

"Thanks."

"Don't mind it. I'm a King Land Net Savior, after all."

"And the Digital Snatcher! Pal to the Analog Snatcher!" Charles joked all of a sudden.

"That joke's running old…"

"No! We only need the "Dancing Senor"!" Charles grinned.

"Wasn't that the name of Mirror Ball's BGM in _Colosseum_?"

"Yessir. _Baila! Brrrr!_ "

"Yeah, yeah. Those Runpappa were SO annoying…!"

"Can't say they weren't. But at least I got his Usokki." He laughed next.

"Done with the show?"

"Sure. Staff roll!"

"By rolling drum!" A voice laughed close by.

"Cloud Man next?"

"Oho. Just teasing."

"Sheesh."

"Jimei! Amas your disciple?"

"Stop with that stupid joke! It's no joke! I'm not one of those! Don't put me in the same boat as Twilight!"

"Nope! In the same boat as Bapgei~…"

"He's surely speaking ill of you by now."

"No way! Bapgei~! We gotta TALK!"

"Seems like he fled. Good one, Meijin."

"Meh! After all this time…"

"I know. Over 2 and a half years… And it's still going on. It still feels like it was yesterday when it all began… "Neo Gospel's Rise"…"

"The most important part is to look out for our morale. We mustn't let frustration make us fight each other and wear us down." Meijin reminded them.

"Of course not."

"Good. See you."

"OK. I'm going to the Net Police HQ and write the report."

"Good. I'll go to the office and speak with Nokay to see if he's figured out anything new."

"That _Lucky Luke_ likes using a SAA!" Lander chuckled.

"How innovative of you." Davis rolled his eyes.

"See ya, Digital Snatcher! Time to _snatch 'em all_!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know that tune as well, Charles… See you around."

"Around the round!" Lander laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. I know that tune, Lander… Patent it already."

10:29 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Heh, heh, heh. Isn't this nostalgic?"

"Like I care."

"Hmpf. So it'd seem…"

"Hah! Mere _amateurs_."

"Speak for yourself. Fool."

"Heh, heh, heh. Catch me, Tin Soldier!"

"Hmpf…"

Rock Man was fighting Freeze Man while standing on a round platform made of ice and hovering over a plaza of Internet City: the banner "Osaka" could be seen close by indicating where this was at.

Freeze Man also had a body armor like that of Cosmo Man yet his was slightly different.

Within the empty chest cavities, there were large yellow eyes which narrow black irises set there.

Freeze Man had been taunting Rock Man but he was far from impressed to begin with.

"Thousand Spear!"

"Hah!"

"Hrum! Fast…"

Blues dodged Yamato Man's spear attacks by jumping backwards and flipping in the air: he shot Sonic Booms at the same time and Yamato Man blocked them with ease.

"… Remote Gate! Demon Hand! Hah, hah!"

"Hmpf. Satellite Ray!"

Zoan Gate Man was Search Man's opponent and he was constantly moving from place to place with his Remote Gate: he shot the Demon Hand at Search Man but he dove into the ground and took aim: the Satellite Ray attacked from the NE and hit the right shoulder: Zoan Gate Man glanced at it but then a shot pierced through the arm and hit him.

"Ugh! Gate Cannon!"

"Rock Cube!"

"What!"

Search Man formed a Rock Cube and the Gate Cannon's attack bounced off it so Zoan Gate Man had to duck to dodge and the attack ended up inside of the still opened Remote Gate thus damaging it: Zoan Gate Man turned his attention there: he tried to focus on Search Man again but he was running for him and shooting to hit the ground around him: Zoan Gate Man panicked and began to try to dodge: Search Man tackled him with the right shoulder and threw him inside of the Remote Gate yet, since it was damaged, it couldn't close or warp: Search Man aimed his gun inches away from Zoan Gate Man's forehead and his glare was cold and impersonal: Zoan Gate Man began to curse under his breath.

"You choose the wrong opponent." He coolly lectured.

"Damn it!"

"Search Man! Above!"

"Roger, sir!"

Search Man jumped to the left when Laika ordered him to and a quite big and thick ice-made stalactite dropped from above: it shattered into pieces that spread around but Search Man hovered to avoid: he focused on the Ice Stage and spotted Freeze Man looking down while Rock Man was shooting at his back yet Freeze Man didn't seem to care about that: he then jumped to dodge at attack by Yamato Man who'd focused on him and was ignoring Blues' attacks.

"Hum. They're stalling for time so that Gate Man can fix the gate and resume fighting you." Laika calmly guessed.

"What should I do?"

"Let's call upon the ace." Laika sneered.

"Hey. You. Didn't we have a score to settle, Victor Fries?" A voice challenged Freeze Man.

"Hmmm? Hmpf. The defective's come to try again…" He wasn't too surprised.

"You're one to TALK."

Zero had showed up there and nodded at Rock Man: he jumped off the stage and joined Blues: Yamato Man grumbled and looked like he was trying to think of a way out this situation: he looked at Gate Man who was trying to fix the gate but Search Man was constantly interrupting him.

"Hum. Looks like we'll have to use an ace too…" Freeze Man calmly muttered loud enough for Zero to hear.

"Saw it coming." Zero wasn't surprised.

"GRU~H!"

Metal Gear REX suddenly showed up there and began to charge up the railgun: they all gasped.

"Heh! No need to fret… There's no nuke… We re-designed it to behave just like the portable version yet… Its power is way higher! And you'll now see how powerful it is! Go, Cloud Man! Fire!"

"Roger, Freeze Man – sama!"

The railgun shot a powerful electrical stream at a nearby skyscraper and the impact deleted it while scattering fragments around the zone: the defenders cursed under their breaths.

"Good thing we ordered a full evacuation!" Rock Man cursed.

"And that this is the Cyber World…!" Blues growled.

"Heh, heh, heh." Freeze Man chuckled.

"You damned…!" Zero hissed.

"Unleash that hatred into me… Defective…" Freeze Man taunted Zero while seemingly sneering.

"Focus." Search Man called out.

"Alright. Blues, handle Yamato Man. I'll do what I can regarding that mole… If not we call for the backup unit." Rock Man told him.

"Try using your ace."

"Hmmm… What do you think, Netto – kun?"

"It could be worth a try… Let's go!"

"OK!"

"Soul Unison: Omega Soul! Slot In!"

"Oho! Coming, eh?" Cloud Man laughed.

Several streams of crimson light jumped off from his chest emblem before crimson energy encompassed his body and seemed to form a new layer over its frame: a dome of transpired reddish energy formed around Rock Man.

"Heh, heh, heh…"

"Soul Unison: Omega Soul" Rock Man had gained a wholly new layer of armor over his body.

His helmet got Omega's helmet overlapped with his but the ear-pads remained unchanged: the inverted pyramidal jewel on the forehead was replaced by an eight-spoke emerald and a golden line with silver edges spanned across the length of the helmet from behind the jewel to the lower rear edge of the helmet.

His shoulder-plates became vermillion and gained white circuitry patterns over them: his arms' skin became black and his forearms' armor got a new crimson layer with a golden bracelet close to the wrist: the fingers were colored black by now.

The chest got Omega's vest over it and it included the "Omega" symbol colored in white color on both sides of it: a hole had been cut on the center to expose his chest emblem.

His waist got that curious "V" piece of armor on it which formed that cavity in the front and the rear of it.

The legs became black and unadorned and the boots also got that crimson armor with a golden bracelet slightly beneath the start of them: the soils got thicker and were colored in metallic black color.

A large flock of blonde hair formed behind the helmet and reached all the way to the floor.

He lastly got the O – Saber on his right hand colored in a bright emerald color plus the holster for it over his right hip.

"It came~… Let's go north!" Cloud Man laughed.

"Aim for the radome!"

"Roger! Hrah!"

Rock Man flew for REX's radome and plunged his saber there: it managed to pierce through a portion of the armor so Rock Man jumped away and then placed a Giga Count Bomb on the railgun near the generator: he jumped off it and shot a plasma round to the knees' missile launchers by using a gray gun: REX began to load the railgun but then the Giga Count Bomb exploded thus shattering the generator and the body of the railgun: Cloud Man cursed while Rock Man shot another plasma round at the radome thus melting the armor and exposing the circuitry.

"Damn it. Pull out, Cloud Man!" Freeze Man ordered.

"Roger! I'll remember this, Rock Man!"

"Come anytime. _Don Nube_." He taunted back.

"Sheesh!"

The REX broke down into clusters of data while Cloud Man warped elsewhere: Freeze Man then saw how Yamato Man had gotten cornered by Blues and was resorting to his armored arms to try to fend him off while Zoan Gate Man was being forced to run in circles to dodge Search Man's serial shots: Zero had quickly broken the ice keeping him glued to the stage and was joined by Rock Man who aimed his plasma gun at him with a serious look.

"Want to figure out how many milliseconds it takes for plasma to melt ice?" He taunted.

"Damn it. We got confident and underestimated them…!"

"… Or so you pretend. To make us get cocky. Right?" Zero guessed.

"Sheesh." He grumbled.

"Bull's-eye."

"Retreat!"

The enemies ran out by warping away like any Navi would do so the defenders sighed in relief but got serious again.

 _We can't lower the guard. This was a farce, not a real battle…!_

13:11 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Of all guys we had to stumble upon these. Twilight… The bastard sure wants to mock our VR map…"

"So it'd seem, sir."

"At least they're not THAT tough…!"

"Mwah, hah, hah!"

"Huh, huh, huh!"

"Show me your moves!"

Omega, Blood Shadow and Sigma were trying to deal with an ambush by Koopa, Donkey Kong and Captain Falcon in another Internet City: they weren't too surprised and had gotten into fighting poses: Omega quickly ran for Captain Falcon when he began to load his "Falcon Punch": he delivered a barrage of punches to him and knocked him away: Sigma delivered a fist to DK's forehead as he began to load his fist attack as well: Koopa hid his body into the shell and began to spin towards Blood Shadow but he shot his loaded shotgun to stun him in mid-air: Koopa then began to expel flames but Blood Shadow formed a "Tsunami" Battle Chip and warped as the waves washed Koopa away along with the other two: they were deleted so Dr. Mario, Meta Knight and Lucario dropped in next: the group fumed.

"We had to beat Mario, Luigi and Kirby before those 3… And yet another group comes… How many fighters were there, anyway?" Omega asked the other two.

"39, sir." Blood Shadow concreted.

"39 divided by 3… 13… So if we beat this group… There'll still be another 10 groups left." Sigma grumbled.

"Kir Osh is working on fixing the hack to our VR map along with Trill and Iris and to stop Cloud Man from dragging our characters from the map to there." Vadous fumed over the radio.

"Huff. It had to be Cloud Man! That damned meddling rascal!" Sigma cursed as he brawled with Meta Knight.

"Cursing won't help you beat them." Omega scolded.

"R-roger, sir."

"Mario~!"

"Hey. You. Lucario. Ever heard of Vapaad? I'll show it to you… Now! Try to count how many fists there are!"

Omega shut off the sword and placed it on the sheath to then begin unloading an array of fists into Lucario: there were so fast that Lucario was being pushed backwards with no chance of recovering: Omega risked a glance around and spotted that Sigma made his sword hit the ground: it rumbled and a geyser formed shooting Meta Knight high into the skies and deleting it: Omega then delivered an uppercut to Lucario's jaw and a kick to the stomach area to then finish it with a strike with his right hand to the neck: Lucario fell into the floor face-up and got deleted.

"Who's next?" Omega challenged.

"Hrya~h!"

"Heh, heh, heh…"

"Hah!"

"Link, Ganondorf and Zelda…" Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Huff. With these… We'll have 12. How is it, Boss?"

"We're close to! Trill unleashed a fake Falzer hologram on Cloud Man and ran off… Looks like Twilight managed to open a connection to the outside last time he intruded here… It's almost totally closed by now… Those should be the last ones!"

"About time. And we really need to examine the systems down to their roots. You can't trust that rascal: maybe he left something dangerous lurking around and ready to give us a fright."

"I know. Damn it all."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Did ya like the sweating?" Cloud Man taunted them all of a sudden.

"Hmpf. I'm going to turn you into scrap." Omega shot back.

"Not so fast. Flying Ducking Crashing Pumpkin!"

"What? Whoa!"

A large pumpkin with bat wings and a scary face while glowing red from the insides suddenly dived for them and they dodged as it resumed height and vanished: the other 3 attackers had been defeated as well so Cloud Man's voice began to echo.

"Beware! It's something terrific! It's a duck and a half!"

"It's so… irrational! It makes me feel MAD!" Omega got annoyed.

"Not Vincent again…! Someone shut the guy in a madhouse!" Sigma groaned, exasperated.

"Over my dead body!" Cloud Man proclaimed.

"How can you, a Darkloid, bear with such an illogical guy?" Blood Shadow annoyingly questioned.

"'Cause Twilight – sama programmed me to accept illogical stuff as natural happenings! He surely foresaw when I'd meet IQ – sama…"

"Anaya and her damned random moods. Proven well enough in that damned "Hellfire Period" thing…" Vadous fumed.

" _SUNE~KU~_!" Cloud Man called out, laughing.

"What the hell do you want, you Genome soldier?"

"OI! I'm no brainless soldier!"

"Eye for an eye!"

"Wha~t? Damn it all!" Cloud Man growled.

"Hmpf! You bark but don't bite!" Vadous taunted next.

"Grrrrr…"

"You're but a dog to yank around the chain."

"So what!" He tried to play the unimpressed.

"You're weak. Weaker than a Gekkou."

"Weaker than a Gekkou? No way!"

"Yeah. One railgun shot and they blow up."

"I'm so gonna blow YOU up with MY railgun! Once I finish remaking it and powering it up!"

"Come anytime. Nerd of nodes."

"NGGGGG…!"

"NG wording next? They're gonna put you in the "NG setting" list if you spam a Nico Nico video." Vadous taunted next.

"This guy, that guy and that other guy…!"

"They're far smarter than you: that's for sure."

"No way!"

"Swallow Man must be plotting to bury you."

"Like I'll let that Shallow Swallow Man!"

"Cosmo Man must be degrading you in front of Twilight."

"Damn it, Golden Man! Just you wait…!"

Cloud Man seemingly fled and they sighed in relief.

"Mr. Vadous? We managed to close the hole totally and installed the new security layers." Iris called out.

"Yay! Bad guy ran away!"

"Thanks, Iris and Trill. Take a rest."

"Thank you. Let's go, Trill."

"Yay! Trill will go see Mister Dragon!"

"Alright. But don't bother him too much."

"OK!"

"Blood, Sigma. Go to your usual posts. Omega. Call for Prism Man and search the area for any traces. Doubt there are any but…"

"Alright. Go."

"Roger, sir."

Blood Shadow and Sigma warped and reappeared in front of a firewall: Zero was standing guard there and walked up to them.

"The protocol."

"Gotcha."

"Who was the best instructor?"

"The Didact."

"And the best archivist?"

"The Librarian."

"Good. Ah yeah… Dragon Hell… He's a fan of the Ottawa Dragoons, no?"

"There's no such club."

"All clear. See you."

"OK."

Both stepped through the firewall and opened a communications window: Netto and Saito showed up there.

"We heard the tale from Zero. Really… Twilight boasts he doesn't use same trick twice but he does: using our systems against us…"

"You know the rascal, Netto – kun. Never take anything for granted." Saito reminded him.

"I know. Oh well. We should finish tomorrow's homework."

"Sure."

"Before that… Kairyuu! Destruction Beam!" Sigma laughed.

"Sheesh. You've been playing _Soul Silver_ again." Blood Shadow sighed.

"I'll revive again AND AGAIN!"

"Charmed."

"Is that all?" Netto asked while rolling his eyes.

"Let's shut down the speakers." Saito calmly suggested.

"O-oi, guys! I'm not…! They shut them off."

"That happens because you get cocky. Lesson learnt?"

"Sheesh. Fine, fine. And here I wanted to improve the mood…"

"My bad, but you'll need to find another way to."

 _Those rascals… Get serious. I hate farces. Come at your full power! I'll deny your existences! Me, and my little toy… Hmpf…_


	3. Chapter 3: Amateurs

**Chapter 3: Amateurs**

11:04 AM (Japan Time), Monday January the 15th…

"… You gals… What's the plot?"

"Karazawa? Not again with your conspiracies. Got no time for them!"

"Same over here. Some stuff is better off not known."

"Oh yeah? That IQ gal called me and said you're hiding stuff!"

"And you believe a criminal who's lied and deceived tens if not hundreds of people all across years?"

"Eh…"

"Sheesh."

Meiru and Tamashita had been looking out from the classroom's windows one gray day as if expecting snow to start falling: most of the classroom was empty and only Yaito remained, going over the lesson and mumbling in a nervous manner: another girl student brusquely walked over to them so both sighed, annoyed.

"B-but…! Why did that woman…?"

"Call Nelaus – kun like that? It's but sarcasm: because Nelaus – kun is blonde. That's all." Tamashita quickly replied.

"Give it up, Mana. It's pointless."

"Cha be quiet!"

Karazawa, the other girl, had long blonde hair which she'd tied in a ponytail and brown eye irises.

Her Link PET was colored mahogany with crimson edges: the Navi emblem had golden edge, purple body and the _kanji_ for _oujo_ or "Princess" written on it using azure color.

"Fine. But I did warn ya. She who warns ain't a traitor." The Navi calmly replied.

"So? How about you go have some fresh air?" Tamashita suggested as if trying to shoo her away.

"You won't shake me off so easily! Tamashita!"

"I wonder about that."

"What was that?"

"Calm down, Mana. Or the homeroom teacher is gonna scold ya again: that gal's got what it takes to keep gals like ya in place."

"I didn't ask for your irony, Scherezade!"

"It's a warning. Silly-headed."

"KI~H!"

"Gauss Magnets will complain that you stole his frustration cry." Meiru taunted.

"Scherezade! Do something!"

"Do _what_?"

Scherezade projected to discuss with Karazawa.

Scherezade was a girl Navi who had a golden helmet with a large diamond set on the center of its forehead.

Her eyes' irises were colored platinum and she was pretty, if not much, annoyed by now.

She also sported a pearl collar around her neck.

Her chest had a sleeveless silk cloth over it decorated with silver patterns and having a crystal star on the center of it.

Her chest emblem was the same as the one set in the Link PET.

Her arms had pinkish transparent silk cloth over them and she sported 4 rings in each hand's fingers save for the thumb finger: they were respectively colored, from left to right, red, green, blue and yellow.

She wore tight black silk pants with white patterns spiraling down their length in each leg.

For footing she used grayish heeled shoes which each had a ruby, a sapphire and an emerald set on each of them forming a column spanning down the length of them.

Lastly, she also wore a thin silver-like silk cape hanging from her shoulders and reaching until the ground.

"But that Kataka gal said that…!"

"Ex- _senpai_? Don't believe what that bitch says, Karazawa. She's in the lies and deception club. What would you expect of that bitch?" Tamashita shot back, annoyed.

"That gal, this gal, that other gal…! They all wanna make fun of me! Confess! What's going on?"

"It's very simple: Anaya is using you to start a civil war. She's treating you as a puppet." Meiru summed up.

"PUPPET? ME? OF THAT BITCH? NEVER!"

"Then stop believing on whatever she says. It's a trap to make us fight each other."

"But…!"

"Some stuff is better off not known." Meiru added.

"I DECIDE THAT! SAKURAI!"

"Ahem, ahem."

"YIKES!"

"Karazawa. Do I need to complain to your parents AGAIN? They're going to have you quit this school at this rate."

"T-that's…!"

The homeroom teacher happened to step in and began to scold Karazawa: she got nervous and began to sweat while the other girls sighed and rolled their eyes: Yaito was looking over there with an annoyed face because Karazawa had interrupted her when she was going over the lesson.

"It's like Sakurai and Tamashita say. Those women are criminals. They lie and deceive. They manipulate others to do their bidding. They fuel paranoia and mistrust. They want to start a civil war. You must ignore them and focus on what's important… Your grades! You barely passed the December exams: by inches! You need to take them more seriously because the February exams will be harder! And let's not talk about high school!" She kept on scolding in a rush.

The other girls silently looked on as all color left Karazawa's face.

"Go wash your face and have some fresh air! But don't start bothering the other students either! Eye – have – you!" She ordered.

Karazawa cursed under her breath and ran off the classroom: the other girls and the teacher sighed in relief.

"I did well on dropping by here. I had a hunch Karazawa would start up some mess again. Really. Did she come here because she HAD to or did she want to play spoiled woman?"

"So it'd seem, ma'am." Meiru politely commented.

"Huff! Youth nowadays…! Parents should teach them from the start that studying is the most important thing to do! You let them too loose and this is the result."

"True, ma'am…" Tamashita glanced at Yaito.

She gulped and resumed going over the lesson as if she feared that she would be scolded next: the teacher sighed.

"Oh well. I think some fresh air would do well to all of us. See you around and ignore Karazawa as much as you can."

"Roger that."

The teacher left so both girls picked their coats and headed out into the yard: they spotted the guys playing soccer and simply sat on a bench below a tree: Tamashita's PET beeped.

"Mail, Felicia?"

"Yep. Let's see… From Higureya… "We offer you doomed dooms! Se muda!"… What the heck is this? Higure – san's "inspirations" again or what?" She wondered.

"Sounds like Cloud Man to me." Roll ventured.

"Wouldn't surprise me. Seems like it's been spread to many people: did you get it too, Roll?"

"Sure. It says the same. And look at the sender… "higuresemuda"… When Higureya's address is "higureyaakihara"…" Roll pointed.

"Really. Sounds like a spoiled guy."

"Heh, heh, heh… Thanks for the compliments, missies!"

"Speak of the Devil…"

They both looked (as they were in the school's Cyber World hall) at how Cloud Man showed up from behind a decorative column while chuckling: they were far from impressed.

"I've got explosive news! The armada of invincible second-class ducks will defeat the _gringos_!" He laughed.

"That your best shot, Cloud Man?" Felicia challenged.

"Far from it, Miss! I borrowed it from my buddy Vincent!"

"Not Vincent again. Makes you wish he'd never existed." Roll groaned.

"Alas! Reality is cruel! Fair lady. IQ – sama in person ordered me to not to be rude to lil girls like you 2…" He chuckled.

"How kind of the bitch." Both dully replied.

"Did the gliding glider go mad?" He asked.

"You mean Glyde? Leave him in peace! He's unrelated."

"I wonder 'bout that… He might actually be Pennyworth the 13th!"

"Shoo, shoo."

"Well then… Looks like I gotta leave… Before that… Beware! Something incredibly evil, blessed and repulsive is approaching… It's… My Bahamas cousin! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!"

He laughed and ran off by warping out of the Cyber World: both girls fumed and so did the Operators.

"Bahamas cousin. How original!" Meiru fumed.

"You can see how big his CPU is from that." Roll ironized.

"Barely better than Guts Man's." Felicia added.

"Feels like it!" Tamashita shrugged.

"Guts, guts… Mango, apple, banana, pear… Huh… What else, guts? Huh…"

"Who built him such a small RAM? He can't remember more than 4 things to begin with!" Felicia complained.

"Someone who thinks he's very smart." Roll concluded.

11: 21 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So, Nokay… Anything new?"

"Apart from Cloud Man meddling around a while ago…"

"Where?"

"Akihara Middle."

"Hum. Maybe we should check it out: the guy might've planted something. We don't want a repeat of that of November."

"Of course not. Thanks for the info, Patrick."

"It's nothing. That's my duty in the Justice Council, anyway."

Charles was speaking with a guy about his age inside of a meeting room that had a round wooden table, some wheeled chairs and a couple of plants next to the double entrance doors.

This guy, Nokay, had brownish hair which had been cut so that it didn't grow too thick and it was combed with the help of fastener and comb: his eyes' irises were emerald green.

He wore a simple white shirt, a green bowtie, jeans and white sneakers plus a black leather belt.

He had reading glasses on and he'd been working with a laptop but he was now facing Charles, who was standing to his right.

"College of Davidson's bankrupted, Dave~…" Cloud Man's voice suddenly rang out.

"Speak of the Devil! How did you get inside?" Charles growled and looked around.

"Easy. I materialized in the lobby and then got in through the server room! Nyah, hah, hah!"

"Shit. Didn't think of that." Davis growled.

"So! IBM 10000 VS HAL 9000… The result? BOREDOM!" He laughed at his poorly improvised joke.

"Shoo, shoo. Old-timer."

"Beware! The Bates Ranch!"

"What about it?"

"Creepier than Uncle Cabbage's Farm!"

"That abandoned Sabadell farm? Sheesh."

"Beware!"

"What next?"

"Miyuki – sama's stare will make you freeze from the inside out!" He chuckled next.

"Bone Stalker!" Skull Man's voice rang out.

"Speaking of Miyuki – sama… I'd noticed your stalking, Old Timer Man! You're too _amateur_ … You'll have to do better than that, Kenobi!" Cloud Man was far from surprised.

"How did Skull Man get inside?" Nokay wondered.

"Guess he used his Net Agent license…" Davis guessed.

"I apologize for the rude intrusion yet…" "Miyumiyu" (Miyuki's disguise alter ego) showed up there.

"Don't take the guy lightly." Charles warned.

"I know. Skull Man. Beware of their "bunshin"."

"Roger that."

"So! Old Timer Man."

"Grrr! Skull Man!"

"Old Timer Man!"

"SKULL MAN!"

"Pirate Man!"

"Wha~t?"

"Skeleton Man!"

"This rascal!"

"Dead Man!"

"I'm not dead!"

"Rotten Away Man!"

"Take that back!"

"Do you show up in kids' nightmares?"

"HUH? Why should I?" Skull Man grumbled.

"Dunno. Ask Miyuki – sama over there. She must use her ESP to make bad kids behave and eat lettuce." He laughed.

"Like I would." She was unfazed.

"Someone would like to enlighten you!"

"Who is it?"

"ME!" Anaya's voice rang out.

"Anaya again. You never know when to give up." Charles grumbled.

"Hmpf! Out of my way, Milverton!"

"I AIN'T MILVERTON!"

"Yeah! Milverton the 4th!"

"GSGHGHALRNGKLSNL!" Charles growled something undecipherable.

"State your business." Miyuki ordered.

"Not interested in my business?"

"I shall not be a prey of lust. I know my place. You are a woman who sold their soul to Evil. I shall not heed such women."

"Hmpf! You speak like in a _kabuki_!"

"And what if?" She wasn't impressed.

"Sheesh. You're supposed to get annoyed!"

"And if I don't want to? Then what?"

"Sheesh!"

"Flee."

"Like I would! This is my climax! Cloud Man! Bust 'em all!" She ordered.

"Roger! Elec Storm!"

"Demon Fire!"

"Elec Sword!"

"Long Sword!"

"Surprise kick!"

"Uack! That was dirty!"

"I'm dirtier than MUD! Mutated Universal Diversion!"

"HUH? What nonsense! And you're supposed to be a globally feared terrorist?" Skull Man fumed.

"I'll concede that ya guys found one of our hideouts last summer but… That's all!" He chuckled.

"Skull Man. B Plan."

"OK."

"B Plan? There's no such thing!"

"Grrr! Stop bringing up _cliché_ quotes!"

"It's coming from above! Watch out!" He quoted next.

"Sheesh."

"Boss! Boulders are falling from the sky!"

"I'm getting ANNOYED!"

"About time, Annoying Speech Man That Is Worse Than A Politician! ASTIWTA!" He made up an impossibly long name.

"Program Advance! Dream Sword! Eat this!"

"Oho… Not so fast… Dark Sword! Same power and range as the Dream Sword! Taste the power of the Dark Side of the Force! Do not underestimate the power of the Dark Side of the Force. I find your lack of faith disturbing." He laughed as he quoted.

There was an explosion and Skull Man yelped followed by some kicks and punches: someone shot a Giga Cannon and Cloud Man yelped next: Miyuki looked up from her PET to Charles.

"Missed me?" Davis taunted.

"Hah! Good timing. You're next, Davidson!"

"Hey! You! Occult lover! Are you listening?" Anaya demanded.

"Your servant spilled the green tea."

"MARCO! You moron! You don't know how to properly prepare green tea? You need a lesson or two!" She got annoyed and seemingly yelled at someone there.

Miyuki took the chance to shut off the channel and sighed along with the other two: Skull Man mumbled as he seemingly recovered while Davis and Cloud Man clashed blades.

"Superintendent Akechi says you need to do better than this! Amateur detectives!"

"Akechi? Who's that?" Charles wondered.

"A character from the _Kindaichi Case Files_ … A young brilliant man who got promoted to Police HQ Superintendent…" Nokay explained.

"Ah. I think I'd heard about that _manga_ , yeah."

"Ah. It'd seem the guy's coming." Davis suddenly announced.

"The guy…? Oi, oi! Don't tell me it's THAT guy!"

"Maybe it is?"

"Shit! I'm outta here! I'm no rival for THAT guy!"

"Not so fast! I'll chase ya to Hell!" Skull Man hissed.

"Stop, Skull Man. It's pointless. And dangerous." Miyuki ordered.

"Damn it." Skull Man grumbled.

"Phew. We got a new trick to shake him off."

"Yeah. Good catch, Davis. Now… Let's work on improving security: else the guy will intrude through that route again and again."

"Yeah. Another long day ahead of us…" Nokay sighed.

"I shall be leaving. Good morning."

"I better go fetch some Cola… It should give us some energy… Talk about a crazy morning. Man." Charles scratched the back of his head, sighing.

17:37 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So, Ayase… Is everything OK at the school?"

"Yeah, ani – chan. Why shouldn't it be?"

"Thought Cloud Man showed up there too."

"If he did nobody noticed."

"Hum. Fine. It's just that we're quite on the edge as of late."

"No wonder, ani – chan."

Martin was talking with a teenager student inside of a cafeteria somewhere.

This teen, Ayase, had blond-like hair and his eyes' irises were blue.

He obviously wore his school's uniform.

"You're very READY when it comes to landing! Very READY!" Lander joked all of sudden.

"Oh yeah?" Martin wasn't impressed.

"I think I've heard it over 10 times by now…" Ayase complained.

"Don't you have anything better than that?" Martin asked.

"Guess no!"

"Lovely."

 _Heh, heh, heh. How carefree… And I see why they chose that guy over there… Good looks…_

None of them noticed how another teen wearing a school uniform was looking at them from some tables apart while seemingly working on solving Math problems: he had an earphone on his left ear connected to a dull gray PET that had no emblem whatsoever.

This teen had jet black hair and green emerald irises.

He could be around sixteen or seventeen years old.

 _This translation software allows me to understand what they say. And they shouldn't notice me so easily. After all Master gave me this uniform to blend in an easier manner… Heh. Don't underestimate Master!_

"By the way! I'm going to ring Day Sword!"

"Day Sword?" Both frowned.

"Who's there, Fire Man?"

"I don't know, Hinoken – sama."

"Oh come on. You made a pun because "hi" can mean "day", "no" is a particle to indicate a property of something and "ken" can mean "sword"… And you know it's a nickname! His real name is Hino Kenichi! Lander!" Martin whispered.

"Heh, heh, heh! I felt inspired!"

"Who's that?" Fire Man demanded.

"Heh! Lucky Luke! The cowboy faster than his shadow!"

"HUH? If it's a troll then get lost. Got no time for them!"

"OK! Let's get lost in Alaska!"

"Hmpf!"

"Oho. Cut me off… It seems that that burning fire really burns…"

"Cut it."

"Glue it!"

"Even I could make that pun." Ayase rolled his eyes.

 _Hey, man. At least they're not as worse as Cloud Man's._

"Huh? Blues is calling."

"Blues? Must be important. Patch it!"

"Roger, Cyber Snatcher!"

"HUFF!"

"Hello? Blackdesu? Did the Romanian leave?"

"What Romanian?"

"Lander said you were cornered by a Romanian and had trouble shaking the man off…"

"I didn't say that." Lander turned serious.

"Damn it. The enemy's trap…? But what would they gain from this?"

"Easy. To turn us paranoid and hysterical." Enzan guessed.

"I see."

"What annoyin' rascals! I'll turn 'em into a hornets' nest!"

"Now, now."

"That of Romanian reminds me of Vamp…" Ayase ventured.

"Maybe they got inspired from there, even. Seeing how they were using the MGS2 model RAYs…"

"Alright. I'm resuming my job. Later."

"See ya."

"Be on the lookout, Ijuuin – kun. You know Twilight has you on his blacklist too for that of the Hind D."

"Of course. See you."

 _Ah yeah… Cloud Man told me that that's the reason Master gets so annoyed whenever that Ijuuin's name is brought up and starts yelling "the spoiled brat!"… Sheesh. You underestimated the guy, Master. No – one's perfect: Lady IQ said that the other day!_

"By the way, ani – chan… Are you keeping an eye on the women's prison? Those 2… villains… are still there, no?"

"Of course. Yuriko is taking care of that by going herself and speaking with the guards. They won't be able to pull that same stunt that Anaya and Izono used again. Not like she'd bother. They were useful pawns for the occasion but, afterwards, they have no further use to her. So she abandoned them. Has surely forgotten them by now too."

"Ah. I see." Ayase calmly replied yet he was barely holding some anger back.

 _Heh, heh, heh. I know the source of that anger. It'd be interesting if you let it rule you… You could for a good acolyte… Those 2 mistresses took good care of you, eh? I experienced their arts too… Excellent arts!_

"Ayase. Anger doesn't solve anything. Revenge… doesn't change anything. It won't bring back what you've lost." Martin sighed.

"… I know. It's just that…"

"I know. It's an impulse that is very hard to hold back…"

"… Hey. Ani – chan…"

"What?"

"I'm going to get a croissant. Do you want one too?"

"No, thanks."

"OK."

Ayase stood up and headed for the counter: he told the bartender he wanted a croissant and then headed back at Martin's table as he also stood up.

"Be right back. I'm going to the restroom."

"OK."

Martin left for the restroom and left the PET atop the table: Lander was checking out the NY Times homepage in the meanwhile as if he was looking for something.

"I'm checking if Twilight bothered to come up with more fake headlines… Or some suspicious comment…"

"I see."

"Hmmm… Huh? What's this? There's a curious comment in a news about the FBI having discovered new routes that the Mexico drug mafias use to smuggle drugs into Ameroupe… Someone says he's seen some FBI officers in Basel, Switzerland… What could they be doing there?" He spotted.

 _That must be Mr. Jade's handiworks… Those guys were poking their nose in Sidney and were looking for me but Mr. Jade used his old connections to influence them and make them think we're in Switzerland! Heh, heh, heh… As expected of Mr. Jade. He knows how to handle them without even having to sweat._

"Speaking of those guys…"

"What?"

"Hum… What was it? I was about to say something but I suddenly forgot."

"Is there some problem?" Martin asked as he came back.

Ayase drew his notebook and tore a page off it to then calmly write a message there which he showed to Martin: the teen spying them gasped and cursed under his breath.

 _Damn it. I don't have the means to translate writing here. This software is only for audio translation! But I've got a hunch of what it is. Time to scram: I did already pay my consumption…!_

The teen quickly packed his stuff and headed out of the cafeteria at a quick pace but not excessively quick so as to not to stand out: he began to increase the pace and soon entered a nearby exit-less alley: he crouched behind some empty cardboard boxes that had piled up there and waited there: a hand suddenly landed atop his right shoulder and he felt a shiver go down his spine: he turned and there was Enzan who had a serious look to him.

"Fond you. Darth Bapgei." He told him.

"Damn it." He cursed in English.

"How is it, Blues? Is there one of those close by?"

"None insofar. I did search a 250 meter radius using ultra-sounds, IR, and X-Ray. We've got their data signature too. I set up the anti-DC jammers in place as well plus the anti-materialization ones." Blues reported.

"Good. You're cornered."

"Indeed!" Martin came in as well.

"Shit. Don't tell me that…"

"We've all memorized your face. Ayase included. He recognized you!"

"Don't underestimate me!"

He suddenly stood up while grabbing Enzan's right arm and performing a _judo_ hold to throw him at Martin: they were knocked down into the ground and he ran off: both recovered and tried to chase: they saw him enter another alley and a white column of light formed before he vanished: both hissed under their breaths.

"We were SO close!" Both hissed.

19:48 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah… Yeah… Good… Move faster, Tooru – kun…"

"Heh, heh… You like riding my penis, eh, Netto – kun?"

"Lil sneaky otouto likes having his cock and balls licked. In a subtle manner: like this!"

"T-that ain't subtle, Saito – niisan…! It tickles…!"

"Does my tongue tickle too?"

"O-of course! Don't lick my neck! Man!"

"Heh, heh!"

Netto, Saito and Hikawa were having sex in one of the twins' bedroom beds.

They'd geared themselves with some S&M gear which consisted on a thin black leather collar with a ring, bands circling the shoulders and going down the sides, adjustable bands on the hips and the ankles.

They'd also blindfolded each other and placed metallic bracelets on their forearms bounded by a lock while aiming their hands behind.

Saito and Hikawa had 5cm wide vibrator stuffed into them from behind and anal beads: Netto only had the beads.

They'd also clipped clothes pegs to their nipples as well.

Currently, Hikawa was sitting on the bed with Netto riding on his cock and facing forward so he was licking his neck from behind: Saito was sitting on his knees and aiming his body forward to lick Netto's cock and balls to play with him as well.

"I know a good joke!" Saito giggled.

"What is it?" Hikawa eagerly asked.

"I'm a joke!"

"HUH? I don't get the point!" Netto protested.

"You needn't worry! Just dance at the pace of the tickles."

"Hah, hah! No more…! You guys…! You don't play fair…! Hah, hah!"

"That's what makes these threesomes fun!" Saito giggled.

"Sure. Like how we put on this gear and all… To spice it up! Like Tabasco sauce in the curry sauce!"

"Too spicy even for me~!" Netto laughed.

"Don't underestimate Maha! He might be up to something sneaky. Like swapping the curry sauce for BBQ sauce!"

"Oh come on! Like Maha would… Hah, hah! No more…!"

"More! You need more tickles. The Tickle Season has begun!" Saito made up a title.

"T-tickle season…!"

"Yeah! The Sneaky and Subtle Tickle Master! SSTM!"

"S-sneaky…! S-subtle…!" Netto was barely holding his laughter back.

"And I'm going to have an aperitif… With your cute lil penis!"

Saito suddenly began to suck Netto's cock and he began to moan: Hikawa giggled and increased the pace while starting to lick along his back: Netto mixed in laughter with moans until he suddenly released and filled Saito's mouth: his release tightened Hikawa's cock and he released as well: both panted while Saito suddenly sat up and moved forward to start a kiss with Netto: he quickly began to follow his pace as Saito rubbed his hardened cock against Netto's to harden it again: Hikawa giggled and resumed licking Netto's shoulders from behind: Netto's cock hardened again and Saito began to move faster until both released at the same time: Saito broke the kiss and both panted.

"Too sudden! Saito – niisan!"

"I'm the Envoy of Sudden Happenings!"

"HUH?"

"Not bad." Hikawa laughed.

"Sheesh. Tooru – kun too…!"

"I'm the Prince of Licking!"

"Doesn't sound too good." Netto muttered.

"Heh, heh, heh. How about this?"

Saito suddenly bit the right clothes peg and pulled it with his mouth: Netto yelped and his cock reacted: Saito quickly did the same with the left one and Netto's cock hardened again.

"W-what…?"

"Don't worry! It's all under control!"

Saito then used his fingers to pull out his vibrator and then turned around to quickly lower his widened ass into Netto's cock: Netto moaned and gasped while Saito giggled.

"Let's go!"

"Feels TOO GOOD…!"

"Heh, heh. You like being in the middle, Netto – kun! Because you get stuffed and you stuff the others!"

"W-well, t-that's…" He blushed.

"Guilty as charged!" Hikawa giggled.

"Man." He sighed.

"What's with the mood? Let's go!"

Saito began to move up and down along the length of Netto's cock and he moaned as Hikawa began to move as well: Netto couldn't stop moaning and Hikawa continued licking his back especially his neck: they kept on for a while until Saito released: his release triggered Netto's and, by extension, Hikawa's: the three of them sighed in relief and from pleasure: Saito stood up and so did Hikawa: they all sat on their knees.

"So… What next?" Netto asked.

"Hmmm… Let's do double… With you, Netto – kun!" Saito grinned.

"D-double? W-well… G-guess that…"

"Oho. I can detect it… That you actually wished for that!"

"Am I THAT readable?"

"How many years do you think we've been playing together? Almost 5 years, you know?"

"Man. Hard to believe it's been that much time."

"Heh, heh! Let's prepare everything… Hop!"

"Wha!"

Hikawa suddenly used his hands to pull out Netto's anal beads and his cock hardened all of a sudden too: Saito giggled and seemingly guessed what had happened: both he and Hikawa sat on the bed facing each other: Netto was in the middle and slowly lowered his ass so that both guys' cocks would get inside: he moaned and began to move while the other two giggled as well: Saito had also put the vibrator inside of his ass again and was exhaling from time to time as if trying to hold back the moans of pleasure.

"Man…! It feels better with you guys than with those 2 lions!" Netto moaned.

"Of course. Especially when it comes to Enzan – kun… He's too stubborn to properly play by the rules!"

"Laika – kun must be sneaky."

"Sure is! But at least doesn't complain!"

"Blues can be a bit hard to deal with from time to time but Search Man is more easy-going." Saito admitted.

"Well. I recently began to do it with Eboshi – kun too… And I feel some odd _déjà vu…_ Ironies of life?" Hikawa admitted.

"Maybe." Saito shrugged.

"I think he needed it… Arushi said he looked worried and distract from time to time." Netto commented.

"OK. When we finish this… You'll have to do a blowjob!" Saito snickered all of a sudden.

"Fine~…" He played the resigned.

"You're looking forward to it, eh?" Hikawa tease.

"W-well… Fine, fine! I was looking forward to it!" He confessed.

"This wouldn't have sense if we can't be totally honest with each other to begin with…" Saito reminded him.

"I think I'm ready! I'm going off!"

"Whoa! Me too!"

"Coming…!"

They both released and filled up Netto's ass with their double release: they let out a long sigh of pleasure while Netto panted from the effort of constantly moving: Netto stood up and both pulled away so Netto sat on his knees while the other two stood up and headed for Netto: Saito placed his cock nearby so Netto began to suck it yet Saito suddenly pulled it out and Hikawa put his in.

"We're going to have you swap from one to the other! It adds a new level of challenge!" Saito grinned.

"Sure does. And he's good at these when he gets in the mood!" Hikawa giggled.

"OK! I go next!"

"Go ahead!"

And so Saito and Hikawa took turns while Netto went on sucking their cocks: Saito released first and then Hikawa did: Netto panted while the other two sat down on the edge of the bed with their legs on the floor: Netto also did the same.

"So… Do we call it off?"

"Yeah. That was enough for today. We'll meet up next week again. On Saturday we go to the other place." Saito settled.

"OK!"

They helped each other unlock the restrains and they quickly took off the whole stuff: they entered the bathroom to cleanse the tools used and dry them: Saito stored them in a gym bag which he locked with a padlock: he put the key inside of a drawer and closed it: they dressed back and nodded to each other.

"See you tomorrow, Tooru – kun."

"Sure. See you. And don't forget to dance a crazy dance!"

Saito laughed at the joke with Hikawa and Netto chuckled as well…


	4. Chapter 4: Ambitions

**Chapter 4: Ambitions**

12:33 PM (Japan Time), Wednesday January the 17th…

"… Swallow Cutter!"

"Sheesh."

"Air Dive!"

"Shuriken Needles!"

"You're slow! Ninja Man!"

"Sheesh. I'm getting fed up with this guy."

"You're not the only one."

Shadow Man was fighting Swallow Man atop the rooftops of an Internet City with a banner that read "Kobe": Swallow Man was constantly flying and diving and making it hard for Shadow Man to attack because he was forced to dodge the whole time.

"Hmpf! You fell into the Dark Side once but managed to run off… What a pity!" Swallow Man taunted.

"Hmpf. I only used that Dark Chip that Dr. Regal gave me because I felt like it could turn the tables around. And I'd won… But I underestimated Search Man's abilities…" He calmly countered.

"Heh, heh, heh. I'll drop you into the depths of Hell!"

"That remains to be seen."

"Heh, heh, heh. Feel confident while you CAN!"

"Explosion!"

"What!"

Shadow Man formed a fireball and tossed it at Swallow Man: it exploded right in front of his noses with a bright flash and a bang so Shadow Man warped behind him and tried to plunge his Shadow Blade through yet it barely managed to get through: Swallow Man warped to another position and Shadow Man simply sheathed his blade in a calm manner: Swallow Man grumbled.

"Like we wouldn't improve our armors! HF blades won't get through!"

"So it'd seem."

"So you can't defeat me!"

"So it'd seem."

"That mood of yours is making me feel ANNOYED!" He began to get annoyed.

"Not my problem. Cloud Man's to blame."

"Damn that idiot! I'll settle it when I get back!"

"In shambles."

"You're one to TALK!"

"Oh yeah? Didn't you know my step-brother's about to get your neck cut off from behind?"

"WHAT? EAT THIS! SWALLOW CUTTER!"

Swallow Man brusquely turned around and shot a Swallow Cutter but there was no-one: he gasped as Shadow Man warped behind him and plunged the blade again: it got a bit further in and Swallow Man gasped in disbelief: he warped again and dropped from above while aiming his right foot at Shadow Man: he simply stood there with the arms crossed and Swallow Man gasped as he predicted the why: but it was too late and he made contact: Shadow Man vanished in a cloud of smoke and was replaced by a clay imitation: it shattered to pieces just as Shadow Man got Swallow Man's back again and plunged the blade deeper in: Swallow Man cursed and began to attack with a barrage of fists but Shadow Man predicted them and began to jump back: Swallow Man then stepped forward and something exploded beneath his feet: the ground collapsed and he fell inside of a room: Shadow Man looked on from the rooftop and Swallow Man quickly got back to his feet.

"I don't get it! How can that blade get deeper and deeper?"

"Who knows? Maybe I borrowed it from _Ninja Gaiden_." He taunted back while shrugging his shoulders.

"Damned rascal!"

"Is that all?"

"I'm going to…!"

"Swallow Man! Disobeying MY orders?" Freeze Man questioned over the radio.

"N-no, sir! I was going to try something new!"

"Remember! Until new commands you're not authorized to use the trump card. Probabilities that they've developed new countermeasures are high…" Freeze Man reminded him.

"R-roger, sir!"

"So. You finally loosened your tongue. Popsicle Man."

"Hmpf. I'll properly deal with you savages sooner or later… Slowly and carefully… And painfully…" He icily muttered.

"Come anytime." Shadow Man challenged.

"Hmpf… Swallow Man! Resume the battle… But if things look dangerous then pull out through one of the routes."

"Roger, sir!"

"And I'm watching you!"

"R-roger, sir."

Swallow Man suddenly built up energy around the body and shot forward at a mad speed but Shadow Man merely had the ground beneath him break to fall into the floor below: Swallow Man couldn't stop and broke through the outer wall to end up meeting another building's wall: he broke through that as well and managed to stop inside of a floor filled with Killer Eye Viruses: they focused on him and began to shoot electrical beams at him: Swallow Man roared and built up energy again to shoot upwards and break through the ceiling: he landed on the rooftop, panting, and suddenly felt Shadow Man plunging the Shadow Blade again: he snarled and turned around to kick Shadow Man but he merely arched his body backwards to dodge: Swallow Man lost his balance and ended up face-up on the ground: Shadow Man merely shrugged and jumped away to another rooftop: Swallow Man got to his feet, snarled, and began to chase Shadow Man while hovering over the rooftops in case there were more traps set in there: Shadow Man didn't bother to look backwards.

"This damned guy is pissing me off!" He growled.

"Amateurs…" Dark Miyabi dully taunted.

"What was that? Damn you~!"

"Hmpf."

"Coming, Shallow Man?" Shadow Man taunted.

"GRA~H!" He growled.

He increased speed and eventually reached a round rooftop atop a communications tower: energy walls formed on the sides and the air thus enclosing them inside of a ring: Swallow Man looked around and tried shooting a Swallow Cutter at one of the walls but a streak of lighting jumped out it and he barely dodged it.

"Damn it. Damage-returning walls…!"

"And there's one below the ground too." Shadow Man added.

"Whatever! I can always overload it somehow! But now I'll turn you into bytes and bits!"

"If you can, that is." Shadow Man calmly drew his blade.

"I can! Showdown! Swallow Cutter!"

" _Shuriken_ Messy Shooting!"

Shadow Man began to flung _shuriken_ around in different directions: their tips suddenly heated up while they flew across the air and stabbed Swallow Man's armor yet he didn't mind those: they blew up next and even though the damage was minimal the series of serial explosions momentarily stunned Swallow Man: Shadow Man then dashed forward and swung the blade to perform a very shallow cut across the armor: Swallow Man tried to grip Shadow Man but he got replaced by a Count Bomb that went off: it didn't do any damage but it served as a distraction to Shadow Man appeared behind Swallow Man and plunged into the back again: Swallow Man growled and managed to turn around: he pushed Shadow Man towards the wall but Shadow Man merely gripped Swallow Man's chest and flipped to jump over him and land behind him: Swallow Man hit the wall and got severely electrocuted: Shadow Man plunged again and inflicted further damage: Swallow Man recovered and hissed.

"Damn it. Only inches of armor left…!"

"Hmpf."

"… I see! You're constantly shifting the blade's frequencies to make the armor's resistance useless! Because it's designed to withstand a certain frequency and not several…!" He realized.

"Hum. This could be troublesome." Freeze Man muttered.

"You're slow to catch up. Bird Man."

"Hmpf! Talk about you! Mercenary Man!"

"Oh yeah? If you mean that mine I already disposed of it."

"Wha…!" Swallow Man gasped.

"Sheesh." Freeze Man grumbled next.

"By the way. That man's looking."

"That man…? Oh crap!" He nervously began to look around.

"Wait, Swallow Man! It's a trap."

"B-but… There's the possibility, sir!"

"… True." Freeze Man begrudgingly admitted.

"Hmpf." Shadow Man merely waited for the next move.

"Enough! Pull out. Use a Stone Cube to overload the field and return to the base. There's this unknown factor that could turn things WAY worse…!" Freeze Man ordered.

"You were LUCKY!"

"Go back to your nest, demon's acolyte."

Swallow Man formed and threw a Stone Cube at the field to overload it: he jumped out through the hole and fled so Shadow Man shrugged and sheathed the blade.

"Let's go report, Miyabi."

"Of course. Hmpf. And then I'll go have a meal…"

 _Hmpf. But this was a farce as well… We're not fooled that easily…!_

15:55 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Chief Lezareno? I've got news…"

"What is it, Colonel Talos?"

"It involves my fatherland…"

"Oh yes? Did something happen there?"

"It'd seem the usual fools turned even stupider."

"I'm not surprised."

A man stepped into an office room placed in a building: the rear wall was the building's front and, like most buildings, was made of glass thus allowing one to witness the street.

The visitor, named Colonel Talos, looked as being on his late forties: his hair was grey and parts of it fell down in the front of the face and he seemed to be missing his left eye as well.

He was dressed in a grey army uniform, although the area around the sleeves and neck was colored in a reddish patch: he had a distinction on the right side of the uniform just underneath the right shoulder.

The other man, Chief Lezareno, was on his forties and appealed to be over a meter and eighty tall.

His hair was blonde and neatly combed his face was clean shaven and he seemed to be calm enough.

He was dressed in a gray trench overcoat, a black sports suit and pants along with brown shoes.

He had sunglasses on, though.

"Well. Things are like this. I've got some contacts in the army top brass: some used to be men under my orders back when I was in the GRU with Colonel Thunderbolt... They keep contact with me because they respect how I raised them to be competent men… Some of them were summoned to an urgent meeting in Moscow… And there was THE man… THE man told them this: "those Neo-something terrorists can make up armies out of the blue! We need that trick! Then our nation shall rise again without having to waste more money in the regular army! Find me those!"…"

"Hum. I see. And?"

"Well. Most of them were puzzled because they didn't get anything of what THE man said. It'd seem they didn't associate THE man's words to what happened in London. So THE man stormed off before they could ask any questions and laughing in his queer manner. The officers then began to discuss amongst them, one was smart enough to check the Internet and then they realized what THE man meant. But they quickly began to argue that it was a stupid show using props stolen from some Hollywood film set and the whole thing was a farce that London had made up to justify more spending on the military and the MI."

"If that's the case then there's no need to worry… Or is there?"

"There is not. They dispersed and concluded that THE man had an attack of arrogance and reality distortion field combined and he was having fantasies. That was 3 days ago and, as far as my contacts could see, none of the other men in the meeting showed renewed interest for the topic to begin with. But I thought that I should warn that maybe some other countries are interested in those… Or parties… Like the FBI…"

"I know. I've got a couple contacts in the NRO, where I worked at. They told me that they'd delivered a threat assessment to the President and decided that vigilance should be strengthened. Taking into account what happened with the Empire State some months ago then it's barely surprising." Lezareno exposed next.

"Some Switzerland agents reported that they'd witnessed some FBI officers openly going up and down and questioning the police of the different districts. It'd seem that they believe Darth Bapgei is living there now and catching him could mean they could use him as a bargain chip to negotiate with Neo Gospel… Their tech in exchange for Bapgei. What a bunch of _naïve_ fools… And they are THE FBI…"

"Indeed. Neo Gospel won't negotiate. If needed they'll tear down the FBI HQ to the foundations to show them the consequences of calling them idiots."

"True. Then again they are already acting like idiots. We did divulge that Opoulos AKA Jade Panther IS the leader of Deadly Pandora. But they paid no heed and still trust what he tells them. Because they think he's still a legit "retired due to illness" top brass man…"

The phone on the desk rang and Lezareno picked it up.

"Yes?"

"Chief, this is the Central… Mr. Morgangantz wishes to speak to you: we did verify the call location was genuine by asking him to hang up and then we rang there." A man reported.

"Good. Patch him. It must be important."

"Yes, sir."

"Chief? Good afternoon." Charles greeted.

"Mr. Morgangantz. Has something transcended?"

"Sure has. In Arizona…"

"What happened?"

"An old contact told me… Freeze Man showed up in a research lab and stole data on new types of laser emitters… I think that it's part of a plan to build up countermeasures to Laser Man's abilities."

"Hum. I see." He calmly wrote it down on a memo.

"Ah. And, also… Cosmo Man showed up on an Air Force base and shattered some windows before fleeing. It's a provocation, obviously enough… Or maybe it's to try to see if the Air Force will recognize them or think it was some vandal guy with a funky cosplay…"

"Could be either of those… Or both of those."

"I think that we should be wary of any moves or actions. They could have some meaning if you look at them from another POV…"

"Maybe it's some idea by Opoulos… Opoulos is a professional. He's surely directed or planned countless FBI strategies and operations during his long career there… He's surely giving ideas to both Anaya and Twilight about how to create confusion… Maybe it's aimed at us, even." Colonel Talos ventured without beating an eyebrow.

"Ah! I see. That could be the case. Or maybe it's a trap to make us think that and these are but decoys to lure our attention elsewhere. We should focus it here, I'd say. Of course, you gentlemen will discuss and analyze the matter to reach a decision…"

"Don't worry, Mr. Morgangantz. It's at times like these that other parties' ideas might be useful. They could have a more open-minded approach to the topic." Lezareno assured him.

"Thank you, Chief. Well then. I'll go dig into the underground… Maybe I can some neophyte who'll easily talk…"

"Good. They might have some idea of recent activity in the underground that involves Neo Gospel."

"Of course. See you."

"Good afternoon."

Chief Lezareno placed the receiver on its place: his cellphone suddenly rang and drew it: he checked the screen and patched the call.

"This is On Air. All nominal, sir."

"Good. Password?"

"The lettuce was awfully good."

"Correct. By the way. Did you win the chess tournament?"

"I don't play chess, sir."

"Good. Did anything happen?"

"No, sir. Had it happened, I'd reported it already."

"Of course. Nothing out of place, I take it."

"No, sir."

"Excellent. Don't lower the guard."

"Roger, sir."

"Report to me on the next scheduled hour."

"Roger, sir."

Lezareno finished the call and stood up.

"I'm going to fetch some water. Do you want a cup too, Colonel?"

"No, thank you very much. I shall return to the Analysis Center. They might've figured out something new."

"Understood. I'll speak with Colonel Botos as well to see if the Air Force has acknowledged the attack or not."

"Good."

Lezareno exited the office and walked out into a corridor: he headed for a water fountain and picked a cup to put some water inside: he drank it as he spotted a man who seemed to be an assistant carrying some documents on a portfolio and heading for a nearby office: Lezareno suddenly seemed to frown.

 _That face… Haven't I seen it before?_

He tossed the empty cup into the garbage bin and glued his body to the corner: he dared to glance and saw the man knocking on a door labelled "Colonel Thunderbolt": there was no reply and the man opened the door to come in: Lezareno silently walked over there and spotted the man drawing an envelope from his breast pocket and placing it atop the desk: Lezareno silently stepped in and drew a silenced Beretta 92F and pressed it against the man's back.

"So. Mr. Erson. Your petty master must think we're stupid."

"Heck." The man turned out to be Bapgei.

"I can guess that envelope. Fake photographs involving Colonel Thunderbolt and some scandal to blackmail him. Too _clichéd_. I'm sure the Colonel would've torn them to shreds on a fit of rage. You shouldn't underestimate him." He dully told him.

"Hmpf. And you think I came alone after the blunder of the other day?"

"Of course not. I can feel their presence. Show up."

"Heh, heh, heh." Zoan Gate Man turned visible.

He snapped his right hand's index and middle fingers and Bapgei AKA Erson got warped out of the room through a "Dimensional Converter": Zoan Gate Man chuckled and dematerialized: Lezareno didn't even beat an eyebrow and calmly funded the gun back inside of his suit.

"Mere _amateurs_." He drily commented to himself.

 _Let's pick these photos and dispose of them before the Colonel gets a fit of anger. I'd rather keep this under wraps. To prove we're hardly impressed!_

17:28 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Mario~!"

"Luigi~!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah."

"Oh my."

"What do we do, Iris – oneesan?"

"Hmmm… I'd say we defeat Koppa and move on forward."

"OK!"

Trill and Iris (on her Navi form) were standing in the alley of a city and looking at a square: Koppa was chasing Mario and Luigi while Princess Peach looked on from close by but was hardly surprised.

"OK! Hop!"

Trill jumped and landed atop Koppa's head: he gasped and collapsed face-down on the ground: the 2 brothers stopped running around and signaled for Peach to follow them: they ran off while Ganondorf stepped in and walked past Koppa while chuckling aloud to mock him: Koppa suddenly recovered and roared at Ganondorf: the man grumbled and showed him his right fist as if taunting him: Iris and Trill ignored them and followed the early trio: they'd stumbled upon Fox and he was quickly dashing from edge to edge of the street: Falco suddenly appeared and began to show how he moved faster: a competition began between both of them: Iris and Trill kept on and reached a 3-story building the door of which was wide open: the trio entered and were greeted by some Kinopios who jumped around, celebrating.

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" They sang.

"Oh my." Peach giggled.

"Hah, hah, hah!" The "fake Mario" suddenly showed up there.

"Oh!" Mario gasped.

"Uah!" Luigi gasped.

"I've come to take back my mommy! And to paint you PINK! Nyah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hya~h!" He laughed.

"Oh my!" Peach wasn't surprised.

"Hah!"

"Uack!"

An arrow was suddenly shot and it hit "Fake Mario" on his right hand so he let go of the paint brush: Pit, the angel, dropped there and drew his two blades while grinning: "Fake Mario" grumbled and ran off only to be chased by Pit.

"Mamma mia!" Both brothers sighed in relief.

"Oh my!"

"YAY! YAY! YAY!"

"Heh, heh, heh. I'm the master of backdoors!" A voice rang out.

"That voice…?" Iris wondered.

"Dunno." Trill admitted.

"Gate Cannon!"

"Dream Aura!"

"WHA?"

"Ah! That's Zoan Gate Man! A bad guy!"

"Devil. There still was some backdoor left behind from Cloud Man's intrusion…"

Zoan Gate Man suddenly attacked Iris with his Gate Cannon but she used the Dream Aura to bounce the attack off and he had to duck to dodge as the attack hit the far wall instead: Trill recognized him and Iris wasn't too surprised.

"Mr. Vadous?"

"What's up, Iris?"

"Zoan Gate Man."

"THAKKGHSLTHNDKTDBTKLGH!" He cursed something undecipherable as if to prove he was really pissed off.

"What's that?" Trill wondered.

"He's annoyed." Iris summed up.

"OMEGA~!"

"Heard you. No need to yell, Boss." Omega calmly replied.

"Show that guy the way out!"

"Fine."

"Devil. Thought he was out." Zoan Gate Man gasped.

"Lack of CPU?" Iris taunted.

"This lil girl…!" He muttered.

"Charmed." She ironically countered.

"Yankee go home." Omega suddenly showed up behind the guy and aimed his gun.

"Hmpf! Area Steal! Demon Hand!"

"Slow."

Zoan Gate Man attempted to warp behind Omega and attack with the Demon Hand but he ducked and the attack failed: he shot a blast at the right knee and melted part of the armor: Zoan Gate Man flinched and managed to step back.

"Go! Gate Soldiers!"

"Gate! Gate! Gate!"

The "Gate Soldiers" popped out and began to run towards Omega but Trill suddenly extended his hands and compressed them into cubes which he then pocketed: Zoan Gate Man gasped and seemed to be incredulous at what he'd seen.

"Is that the power of the "Synchronizer"? To compress Viruses?" He gasped.

"Name's Trill!" Trill annoyingly complained.

"Well. Who knows?" Omega taunted Zoan Gate Man.

"Falcon! Punch!"

"OUWAH!"

Captain Falcon had suddenly dropped in from a hole in the ceiling and delivered a Falcon Punch from behind: the attack sent him flying across the room and through the right wall out into the street where he met with King DeDeDe: he brought down the hammer on the head and a CLONG sound ensued: Zoan Gate Man groaned and got to his feet somehow while clutching his head as if he was suffering a headache: he growled and tried to recover his bearings but the ground began to shake and a shockwave ensued making him jump into the air to then receive a fist: the blow sent him NW and back into the building but into the first floor this time: Donkey Kong entered through the hole using his horizontal movement tactic: Zoan Gate Man got back to his feet somehow.

"Fuck." He cursed.

He heard a CLACK sound and a small missile with a green warhead flew towards him: the blast was powerful and destroyed the gates protecting his chest cavity: Samus Aran showed up there and aimed her Arm Cannon at Zoan Gate Man.

"Fuck AND fuck! I survived countless battles against that damned Greiga Army and I'm being beaten up by some game characters!"

"Because those guys were cocky, flashy and stupid. I speak from experience: I also fought you "Zoanoroids" when we stumbled into Beyondard almost 5 years ago…" Omega showed up through the hole with his arms crossed, unimpressed.

"STUPID? YOU DARE INSULT THE ALMIGHTY FALZER – SAMA?" He growled, pissed off.

"Of course. That was but a tool that moved on instinct. It had no real intelligence. Mere instinct. Tools by Beyondard's Wily to rule the world… That's all you were. Means for Wily to rule the world."

"No! We're above those weak humans and their shabby Navis!"

"Shabby Navis, huh? And how many times did you run away back when you were in the Professor's underground lab? 6? 7? 8?"

"GRRRR…!" He knew Omega had a point.

"Idiots who don't know when to give up: that's all you were and are and will be. Maybe you need another "treatment" by Michelangelo..."

"Not that shark again!" He panicked.

"It might lurking close by… Like _Jaws_ …"

"D-devil… I'm off this MAD place!"

He tried to run away but Samus hit him with the Screw Attack followed by Donkey Kong spinning on his axis and delivering several blows in a rush: he broke free and ran up the stairs while grabbing and tossing Olimar and some Pikmin out of his way: he reached the rooftop but stumbled upon the PKMN Trainer and his Lizardon who attacked with the "Big Symbol" attack: Zoan Gate Man growled and tried to ignore the burns as he jumped off the rooftop and into a Remote Gate to make his escape: Omega looked on from a nearby building's roof and sighed.

"Did you find the backdoor, Boss?"

"Yeah! I just deleted it. And I'm going to search for others. There could be system to spawn them from time to time too. I'll shut off all incoming and outgoing signals. Sorry, but you'll have to bear without TV for a while. Try a DVD." He replied.

"Alright. I've got some of the _Kirby_ DVDs so I'll play those." Iris calmly replied.

"Yay! Kirby, Kirby!" Trill giggled.

"The humble servant of Master Confucius…" A man's voice calmly began to speak.

"Dragon…! Anger God's annoyed! For real!" Vadous grumbled.

"By Confucius!" He gasped.

"I want a decent green tea! Else I'll buy one at 7-Eleven!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"What stubborn cockroaches. Always resorting to the same tricks."

"You said it, Omega! Damned Liquid. I'm gonna settle the score one day!"

"Yeah… And I've got one to settle with this gate rascal too…"

"Just you wait…! I'm going to paint you yellow!"

 _Boss… No need to overdo it either… Anyway… I'll beat you idiots up…!_


	5. Chapter 5: Plots

**Chapter 5: Plots**

13:03 PM (Honolulu Time), Thursday January the 18th…

"… Here we are, Kranos. So? What about your old buddies?"

"No need to be concerned. Ms. Anaya. They're searching Basel down to the sewers like their lives depended on that."

"Hah! Serves them well. Right, Yelling Yell?"

"E-excuse me, my lady?"

"Oh that face!"

"A-as you desire, my lady."

"Ms. Anaya… I fail to see the point of these nicknames addressed to Mr. Twilight."

"Don't worry, Kranos! It's a little habit of mine… To show that this guy has a cute side to him!"

"M-ma'am!"

"Anyway. What do you suggest next, Kranos?"

"Well. Maybe we should send a "reminder" to those Rama folk…"

"Ah! Rama… Those interlopers… I was thinking something like that too… They've gotten in our way too many times!"

Anaya and two men were reunited in a room somewhere.

Anaya was a woman on her late 20s or early 30s and over a meter and eighty tall.

She had orange-colored hair which reached until the base of her neck and blue eyes irises which depicted malice: she had a smug smile to her face.

She sported a sleeveless white shirt, jeans and sandals.

The room included a marble desk having an open Toshiba laptop, some paper sheets with annotations and a granite ashtray having a cigar on it which was letting out smoke: it was still being used.

The room's walls were plain steel filled with satellite photos of several locations across the world which seemed to be military complexes.

Other photos included advanced-looking planes and helicopters plus docks having battle ships and submarines docked on them.

A plain steel door marked the entry and exit of the room.

There were 3 armchairs having green leather body and equally green cushions.

Two were set in front of the desk and one behind: Anaya was sitting on the right armchair in front of the desk.

"But also give a little fright to the Net Police too…"

"Interesting."

One of the men was sitting in the armchair behind the desk: this armchair's back had the Alphabet letter "J" drawn there in a purplish color.

This man was on his mid-50s and could be over a meter and eighty in height yet he had a rather athletic figure to him.

His hair was brown and neatly combed while his eyes' irises were also brown: a small nicely cut moustache could be spotted on his face but he had no traces of a beard.

He currently whore a white tuxedo along with black pants and brown leather shoes.

"Hmmm… Maybe we could invade them with some small fry: just to make them be on the edge and paranoid…"

"Good, vampire!"

"V-vampire? Why, my lady?"

"Never heard of Stephenie Meyer?"

"… That series about vampire romances, was it? Sheesh. My lady! Just because my name is Twilight that doesn't make me a vampire! No offense! Ma'am!"

Twilight, the man on the left, was a man about a meter and eighty tall who looked on his mid-20s.

His hair was blond and neatly combed yet his eyes' irises were blood red: he looked both perplexed and scandalized.

He simply wore a black suit, a black necktie, a white shirt, black pants and brown shoes: he looked like your everyday salary-man.

"Teasing ya, bad, bad boy~… To remind ya who's in charge~…"

"B-but, I…" He protested.

"I know. You never question my orders. That's good. But I feel like I should remind you who the real boss here is… The Boss!" Anaya snickered at him and looked amused.

"A-alright! So then… Mr. Opoulos…"

A buzzer rang out so Opoulos checked the laptop: a pop-up with the message "VISITOR INCOMING" had shown up along with the buttons "DENY" and "ALLOW": he pressed the second and the door unlocked.

"The tea, my lady."

"Good, Marco Polo!"

"… Yes, ma'am."

"Ah. Mr. Izono, sir."

"No need for formalities. I'm just the servant of Anaya – sama…"

A new man came in.

This man was about her same age and maybe 2 to 3 centimeters shorter in height.

He had black hair and his eyes' irises were brown: he looked calm and he didn't seem to be surprised.

He simply wore a green shirt, jeans and sandals.

"Ms. Anaya… Once again, I insist, I fail to see the point."

"It's simple, Kranos! It's a pleasure that only a true ruler can experience! The pleasure of humiliating others and having them bow in front of you without being able to argue back…"

"Hum. I suppose so. Could we get back to our topic?"

"Sure. I think that sending Bapgei out in missions is dangerous. They're on the lookout. And now they all know his face too. So let's stop that and come up with new stuff." Anaya shrugged.

"Hmmm... We could spread a mail aimed at Rama saying that there's something in the Net Police HQ… Lure them there… And attack them with endless Virus legions… To gain combat data… Just in case they've come up with something new…" Twilight suggested.

"By the way: did the operation of the other day go smoothly?"

"Yes, my lady. We gained several tons of drugs from a major Mexican drug cartel… Using Vincent to infiltrate them and manipulating them to kill each other is working… If we continue to make him believe it's for the sake of his precious "General Campestre" then… He'll obey without questioning and do it seriously." Twilight explained.

"Good. Remember to use Cloud Man as the middle man."

"No need to worry. Cloud Man is so eager to do that in the first place that he won't protest."

"Good. But make sure he doesn't start a fight with Swallow Man when he feels like it… And tell the same to Swallow Man."

"Roger."

"And bring me a Vesper cocktail."

"Yes, ma'am."

"It's a joke!"

"… I see. Ma'am." He wasn't amused.

"I thought that, by now, you'd realize when I'm kidding and when I'm not…"

"Excuse me, but you always told me to obey everything Your Grace told me…" He argued back.

"Hmmm… Maybe I was too literal… Well then, I order you to not to be so literal. Acknowledged?"

"Yes, ma'am. As you desire."

"Ah yes. Regarding the CIA hounds… I sent them to Colorado. Made them believe there's a Communist gang there aiming to take over the state. They're now searching every nook and cranny. Sometimes it's good to reuse old fears… Especially when it comes to the top brass..."

"Good, Kranos! You take care of those guys so that they don't get in our way… Tee, heh, heh." Anaya giggled.

"Of course. Just leave it to me." Opoulos smiled as he exhaled some smoke towards the fan.

"Say. Twilight. Couldn't we try to start a scandal involving those Rama guys?"

"We could but something tells me they're expecting it. After the failed attempt at creating a scandal using Thunderbolt…"

"Ah. Fine. If it's not worth it then forget it."

"Roger."

"Well. It's settled. Let's lure at least one of them there and have them handle Viruses… Tell Zoan Gate Man to install backdoors to allow intrusions from multiple sources… Generate and store them in the remains of the Virus Factory… That way they won't be able to trace them to find us…" Anaya ordered.

"I'll have it arranged ASAP. If you shall excuse me…" He stood up and bowed.

"Go, Vamtarou!"

"Isn't that a parody of Vamp from MGS4?" He groaned.

"Guess it is… Beware of sneaky stalkers with monkeys!" She laughed.

"Yes, yes. As you desire, ma'am."

Twilight rolled his eyes and came out into the corridor: Izono was standing in the opposite wall and reading a book titled "Warrior: En Garde" by an author named Michael A. Stackpole.

"They're all in Platform 4 save for Bapgei who's using Platform 3." He told Twilight while looking up.

"Thank you, sir."

"You needn't. I'm a servant. Just like you."

"Yet…" He began to argue.

"Fine~… Have it your way." He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"I am sorry!" He apologized.

"You needn't… It's true that I was your educator but… I'm not that important of a man. I'm a man who serves others. That's all. You serve Anaya – sama as well so we're in the same category."

"R-roger." He gulped.

"Look… I won't get annoyed. I don't need to. Show off some courage like the mastermind you are."

Twilight nodded in understanding and headed down the corridor: a speaker somewhere crackled to life.

"Welcome to Mike's everlasting gag and parody show!"

"MIKE~!"

"Sod off, Bill! Have a dive in Venus' Lagoon."

"Where the heck is that?"

"In your brain!"

"By all the… Cloud Man's playing back that silly stuff that Mike, the radar controller, used to say… The idiot!"

He ran down the corridor and down a flight of stairs to then exit through a door into a wide and tall cylindrical shaft: six landing platforms were placed at different heights: the bottom contained seawater and there was a yacht parked there: Twilight stepped into a platform and saw Cloud Man giving him the back and messing with a holographic screen: Twilight cleared his throat: Cloud Man seemingly felt a shiver go down his spine and whipped around to salute.

"Stop. Acting. The. Idiot." He hissed.

"R-roger, sir!"

"Or I'll shut you down for 2 months!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"Where the hell is Popsicle Man?"

"Freeze Man – sama? In Platform 4 with the others…"

"Ah! This is number 2… Fine. Behave! Or else…!"

He ran off back inside of the corridor and descended another level to exit into another platform: he spotted Swallow Man battling a Heel Navi, Yamato Man training with a Normal Navi, Zoan Gate Man sitting on a corner and going over some data and Freeze Man supervising them: Twilight headed over to him.

"Why aren't you keeping an eye on Mutant Man?" He growled.

"Twilight – sama! That is… I thought he was patrolling as I'd ordered him to do…" He argued.

"Hmpf! Melt on your shame!"

"Excuse me?"

"Whatever the ever! Gate Man! What about the keys?"

"Keys? Ah. Those "Duo's Crest" that we sold to some VIPs… They fell for the trap and we're getting a lot of data… The fools think that this system stops others from accessing their data but they don't know it has a backdoor on it…" He reported.

"Good! Heh. Have at you, you damned fatty blockhead defective stupid junky alien!" He hissed in a string.

"Does that mean the guy in Utah?"

"NO! It's someone else…! That damned traitor mice's former Boss… That stupid thing… At least _kyoudai_ did me a favor and thrust the thing into the depths of the Milky Way years ago… It's never gonna show up here! One less headache! Hah! I hope you get swallowed by a black hole and turned into cosmic dust! Speaking of which… Where's Cosmo Man?" He mumbled before asking Freeze Man.

"Doing maintenance on the yacht." Freeze Man signaled downwards at the yacht.

"Good. Mr. Opoulos may need it. It better be neat and polished."

"Of course."

"Steal Luigi's vacuum cleaner to cleanse up! Hah, hah, hah!" He laughed at his silly joke.

"Huh… Roger, sir…" Freeze Man sighed.

"Good! I'm going to check on Bapgei… Continue as you are… And remember my orders, Yamato Man! I don't want to be treated as an idiot who can't properly program his Darkloids!"

"By your will!" Yamato Man saluted.

"Ah! And, you… Swallow Man! Find and defeat a second-class duck!" He sneered next.

"HUH? Excuse me, sir?"

"Hah! Laugh and fly low!"

"I fail to see the point." He muttered.

"You're not the only one." Freeze Man sighed.

Twilight headed back and exited into another platform to find Bapgei doting a curious outfit and training with Normal and Heel Navis.

His outfit consisted on black leather clothes which covered his whole body including a hood with goggles: it design was reminiscent of an owl's face, even.

He carried a belt spanning from the right shoulder to the left flank of his body and which had sheaths for 6 knives: it included a medallion with the drawing of an owl close to the shoulder.

Other equipment included gauntlets: the right one had metallic armor shaped like an owl's face and the left one had some sheaths for smaller knives.

The guy carried leather boots as well and two knife sheaths attached to the belt's waist.

His gear included two short swords' sheaths attached to his back.

He was currently jumping and throwing knives at the Navis as they tried to dodge yet he predicted where they'd go to: one of them attacked with a Super Vulcan but he simply jumped to the right because the Navi couldn't do anything else but aim forward: he drew his swords and quickly attacked with them to behead the Navi: the body collapsed and got deleted while another one ran for him with a Long Sword: Bapgei spun around and threw five knives that stabbed the chest emblem thus momentarily stunning the Navi: he beheaded this Navi too and kept on.

"Stop." Twilight ordered.

Bapgei stopped and so did the Navis: he took off the hood and sighed in relief because he was sweating.

"How much time have you been at it, Philip?"

"30 minutes."

"More than enough! I told you 15 would suffice."

"I know, Master, but I felt like I had to prove I was in shape."

"15 minutes would've been enough. You must be at your limits. Take the rest of the day off."

"Roger."

"You'll need to be fresh for an operation that will happen in the near future…"

"Understood. What about Nelaus?"

"Hmmm… I'll give you a secure line so that you can poke the guy and let's see what happens… It could work to cloud his mind…" Twilight rubbed his chin and grinned.

"Good."

"And if you want to go to Melbourne to visit your aunt and pretend nothing's changed then just tell me. I'll arrange for an undetected warp to send you over there."

"Good. What about Miss Kataka, though?"

"Lady IQ has plans for them… Has appointed them to lead a club somewhere but I don't know where. You'll ask to ask Her Grace directly for that." He admitted.

"Understood."

"Go have a shower and change. I'll dispatch these to the laundry to have them cleansed. Save for the googles and the sheaths and other equipment…"

"Roger."

"There's nothing troubling you?"

"Huh? No. Do I look like it?"

"No. I don't know why I asked. Guess it was a sudden impulse." He frowned and seemed to be unsure about that.

"Ah. I see."

"Go."

"Yes, Master."

"And remember: I don't intend to be as strict and overbearing as Sidious was with Maul."

"I understand."

Philip walked out of the platform while the Navis dematerialized: Twilight grinned and looked pleased with the outcome: Anaya walked up to him so he saluted but gulped because Anaya looked like she was up to something given her grin.

"So! Yearning Yosemite!"

"My civilian name is Yoru Yami, ma'am!" He protested.

"So it'd seem. Bad guy." She pulled part of his right cheek.

"Y-yes, ma'am…! I shall not disappoint you, ma'am…!" He managed to say while trying to ignore the pain.

"Not like you have, either. I felt like being the bad gal."

"A-as you desire, ma'am!"

"And tell Nelaus his nose is as uglier as Snape's too. Nyah, hah, hah, hah, hah!"

She headed back and Twilight rubbed his right cheek while sighing in defeat.

"I fail to see the point, ma'am…" He muttered with obvious defeatism.

"There's none! Just a semi-colon!" She called back, laughing.

"Can this get any worse?" He exasperatedly wondered.

"Sure can. You'll faint when you see how super handsome ya are!"

"IQ – sama…! What have I done to deserve this? Oh man."

11:11 AM (Japan Time), Friday January the 19th…

"… Intrusion alert!"

"What's happening?"

"Prism Man – sama! Viruses! They've intruded through 8 backdoors placed there and there!"

"Devil. Neo Gospel's handiworks!"

"Neo Gospel, ya say?"

"Huh? Ah! You're… Destruction Man, right?"

"Sure."

Alarms rang out in the Net Police HQ Cyber World and Prism Man addressed a Police Navi to know what was going on: he got a report and immediately deduced the culprit: a voice speaking in Kansai dialect rang out and Prism Man looked at the entrance to spot a Navi named Destruction Man there.

"Can you help me?" Prism Man asked.

"Of course! They're Rama's enemies too. Let's go!"

"Good! Battle Chip, Prism! And now… Fire!"

Destruction Man looked close to a meter and eighty tall.

Black shades similar to Blues' own design hid his eyes but his mouth denoted seriousness.

A matrix of nine red spots was set on his forehead.

He had a robot-like designed given his metallic blue and silver armor pieces all over his body.

His armor included a belt while his legs had jets attached to them from behind.

His left arm ended in knife-like fingers and his right arm had an incorporated missile launcher on top of the right palm holding up to 10 missiles.

His body had brown-colored energy conduits which seemed to originate from the chest emblem.

His emblem (the _Kanji_ _hakai_ (destruction) colored metallic gray and drawn over an azure background) was set on the center of his armor.

"Hrah!"

Destruction Man readied his hands' miniature missile launchers: he shot several of them towards the incoming Viruses and each one hit one Virus: the explosion wasn't strong enough to delete them but was to stun them: Prism Man's attack, bouncing off the Prism, took care of finishing them off before a new wave came in.

"This is Needle Man! Shah, shah, shah! I deleted a backdoor!" Needle Man called out through the radio.

" _Nin_! I dispatched two backdoors." Shadow Man added.

"Good thing I was here today… Out of the way! Sonic Boom!" Blues muttered over the radio.

"Did they mistake the timing?" Sigma wondered.

"Doubt it. Must be a new tactic to turn us paranoid and force us to spend time and energies redoing the system to purge the backdoors or hostile programs. Like what happened in the HQ…" Blood Shadow calmly deduced.

"It makes sense." Search Man agreed with him.

Destruction Man made his fists glow before shooting forward and hitting a large Voltic Eye: the blow was enough to delete it but it dropped a Count Bomb from inside the body: Destruction Man calmly kicked it into the air as if it was a can and it exploded mid-air.

"Guess that email was these guys' handiwork…! It said "Something could happen at the Net Police."… And I got here because I happened to be close by… I'll tell the others not to come: we can manage." He muttered aloud.

"I see." Prism Man calmly commented.

"Really. They must want more combat data." The Operator muttered with a sigh: he also spoke Kansai dialect.

"Sure, Future! Else they wouldn't have bothered to lure us here with that email thingy…"

His Operator screen merely depicted the _Kanji mirai_ (future) colored fuchsia.

"Eat machinegun!"

Destruction Man opened two chest compartments on the left and right sides to reveal built-in machineguns which began to bombard the enemies: most of them were easily deleted before another wave came in: both grumbled.

"7 of 8 backdoors destroyed." Search Man reported.

"Charged shotgun shot! Last one's destroyed. This should stop the waves… But let's not lower the guard." Blood Shadow warned.

"Central Cannon!"

A compartment on his torso above the chest opened and a cannon's muzzle popped out: it shot and the recoil pushed Destruction Man backwards while a howitzer flew for a slightly bigger than usual Mettool: the howitzer impacted and the Mettool got destroyed leaving behind yet another Count Bomb but Destruction Man aimed his right hand and shot some missiles at it: the bomb got destroyed.

"There are still more of 'em?" He asked.

"About 30 remain…" Prism Man replied.

"This looks like it's gonna be annoyin'…" He grumbled.

"Sure thin'…" Future whispered.

"Did ya put the earphones?"

"Of course… I'm making it look like I'm talkin' to someone else…" Future calmly replied.

"Good."

"About 13 left…"

"As expected of the others… They're fast. Gotta pick my loot of 2 or 3 of 'em if I don't wanna fall behind…"

"Heh! That's the spirit." Future chuckled.

"Of course! Those Garuus over there will do! Ya guys! Eat these!"

Destruction Man drew two thick laser projectors over his hands: he shot two high-power lasers which hit 2 Garuu Viruses and deleted them: a bigger one rushed for him and began to load an attack.

"Not so fast. Eat missiles!"

He focused and shot 10 missiles towards the mouth: they hit the growing fireball and it exploded thus deleting the Garuu: the sirens stopped and both looked around.

"Check the firewalls as well!" Prism Man ordered.

"We're on it, sir. Nothing has changed."

"Hum. Don't take your eyes off them."

"Roger, sir."

"Don't cancel battle formations. There surely is more to come." Search Man warned.

"Yeah. I get that feeling. They can do WAY better than this."

"I found the origin." Manabe reported.

"Where is it, ma'am?" Misaki asked.

"The old Virus Factory ruins…"

"Should've seen it coming… Twilight showed up there once… Over a year ago…" Enzan muttered.

"I and Search Man will check the place. All others remain there and in combat formations." Laika ordered.

"OK." Netto confirmed.

"Leave it to us." Saito calmly added.

"Mo~h…" Lowing like that of cattle rang out.

That was followed by chirping like that of cicadas which slowly began to grow closer: Prism Man and Destruction Man watched out: Destruction Man scanned in a 360 degrees radius while Prism Man was keeping an eye out for the skies: the sound suddenly broke and "Gekkou" fighting vehicles emerged from there.

"Shit. Gekkou of all things. Search Man was right." Prism Man cursed.

"We'll have to handle this somehow… Their weak point should be in the head… We can also attack the hips to make it fall…" Destruction Man didn't lose his cool.

"Mo~!"

One of the "Gekkou" tried to kick Destruction Man with the right leg but he jumped into the air and landed atop it: he formed his machineguns and began to attack the small dome atop the "head": he heated up his fists in the meanwhile and accumulated energy: he unleashed it into the front and made the metal bent to reveal the internal components: he formed a grenade and tossed it inside before jumping away: the grenade exploded and although it wasn't strong enough to destroy the armor it did wreck all of the internal components thus defeating unit: it fell into the ground, making it shake, and got deleted: Destruction Man slid beneath another and suddenly drew two daggers from inside of his hands' upper armor: he began to spin around using jets on his soils and performed many cuts to the legs until they both got split in half beneath the knees: the unit collapsed into the ground but Destruction Man was already jumping towards another one: he drew the lasers next and aimed them at one of the grenade-launching tubes: the heat made it detonate and the explosion of several of them did open a hole on the right side of the head: Destruction Man shot his Central Cannon inside of the head thus wrecking some internal components: Prism Man took the chance to fire a Giga Cannon and finish it off.

"Only 2 left in the other sectors. It'd seem there were only 13 of them."

"Huff, huff… I managed to destroy one." Shadow Man panted.

"And I got the other." Blues reported.

"Phew. About damned time." Enzan grumbled.

"Carry out a full system inspection! NOW!" Manabe ordered.

"Stakin' anythin' that it was a parody of the "comin' from above! Look out!" _cliché_ …" Destruction Man fumed.

"Sure thing…" Blood Shadow was annoyed as well.

"Come at full power!" Sigma challenged.

 _Are ya gonna get serious? Ya won't fool us with lil tricks! Wait 'n see! Hah!_


	6. Chapter 6: Good moods

**Chapter 6: Good moods**

09:49 AM (Japan Time), Saturday January the 20th…

"… Man. Laika. You sure can be one hell of a masochist when you feel like it…"

"You shouldn't that surprised, Enzan. And you should be the one to stop complaining whenever you get the role."

"Hmmm… Laika's body feels good… I think I'm going to tease him a bit, you know?"

"Heh. Thought you'd do so, Netto…"

Enzan, Laika and Netto were having a threesome in a king-sized bed placed in a bedroom somewhere.

Laika had been tied with some rope over and below his nipples which kept his arms immobile: he also had some keeping his wrists immobile and a blindfold had been placed over his eyes: he sounded amused as Enzan (sitting on the bed) made him move up and down his cock while Netto, in front of him, was teasing him with the fingers and licking the edge of his nipples.

"By the way… It'll soon be 5 years since we first met, no? Was it in March?" Netto brought up.

"In March the 10th." Laika specified.

"5 years since we met you, Laika… Man. Time does pass by!" Enzan muttered.

"And I always say it, but I was such a moron back then… Feeling so cocky because I thought that a military Net Savior force would be above a civilian one…" Laika admitted with a sigh.

"Well. You did give an air of superiority… And at a first sight you looked like you were 16 or older! When Commissioner Kifune told me you were but a year older than me then I got surprised… You were so tall!" Netto admitted next.

"Heh! I did a lot of exercise in the base gym and the mandatory daily exercises were also strict and harsh… The push-ups and the other stuff, see…" Laika grinned.

"Heh! I see. Oh well. Let's not go over that."

"OK!"

"I'm going to play with your cock, Laika!"

"Heh. Try it." Laika challenged.

Netto began to suck Laika's cock while pulling some spots of his balls' skin: Enzan merely impatiently looked around and seemed to be waiting for something: Netto spotted that.

"What, Enzan… You find Laika boring and want to focus your energies into me instead?" He sighed.

"HUH?" He gasped.

"You're so readable, man. You're not putting energy into it. I know I'm extremely masochist but not to the point I want to be tied up all the times I have sex with you and Laika… I already do stuff like that with niisan and Tooru – kun…" Netto scolded.

"W-well, that's…"

"That's why I thought of this system to switch the roles every week: to make it fair. So that maybe you'll understand a bit of what I feel like. To prove that we trust each other. Like it or not, Laika got ahead of you, Enzan… And I didn't want you two to fight over me like in the Troy War… Gotcha?" Netto sighed.

"Netto has some points, Enzan… Why don't you try to enjoy it instead of trying to pretend I'm not here?" Laika told him.

"Fine, fine. I don't want to sour the thing. It's just that… I lately feel tired and impatient…! The old man's pressuring there and there…! Despite that the numbers are brilliant… He always says they are crap! The old man really wants to associate being VP to suffering like I gotta suffer!" He growled.

"Ah! So that's it. You did have a very annoyed face yesterday evening but wouldn't say why. I was sure it wasn't as a result of the attack to the Net Police HQ."

"Yeah. The old man suddenly showed up and said that we were losing money because I was "playing superhero"… I felt so tempted to go and…!"

"Really. That man…! What does he think, that you need to be the type prone to anger to properly direct a company?"

"Guess that! Thinks he's Mr. Perfect!"

"Forget about that party-pooper, Enzan. Let's chat about something else… Otherwise us 3 sleeping together had no meaning."

"Fine."

"For example… Polindris strikes back!"

"Who or what is that?"

"Dunno. Saw it on a PKMN forum's user signature…"

"Gotta be some idiomatic pun…" Enzan rolled his eyes.

"It also said… "Polindris said: "I AM Polindris!"…"…"

"I fail to see the point. If there's ANY."

"Heh! Reminds me of that stupid guy who was trolling around with that of Vincent's inventions… That of the "pantosymanos"… Which was a short version of "espantos y manos"… "Scares & hands"… And one Deadly Pandora radar operator, Mike, loved to bring up his recordings."

"Nelaus told us, yeah. And he made silly puns. Like… "Four, as in Harrison Ford."…" Netto laughed.

"Mr. Ford surely felt compelled to have a cold on that instant." Laika laughed.

"Oh come on. That's a popular belief, Laika."

"I knew that, Enzan. I wanted to make a bit of irony."

"Fine. Then I've got mine… The Duke of Ducks!" He grinned.

"Not bad. You deserve an Excellent, pupil Ijuuin." Laika joked.

"Or this… Some Yakuza have a foreign researcher aboard a private jet… They think they've drugged him with _sake_ but he feigned it… They're about to throw him out into the Ise Bay… The lead man says… "Farewell, _sensei_! An honorable bath awaits you!"… But the researcher suddenly places both feet on the man's chest and flings him out of the plane and into the ocean!" Netto excitedly explained.

"So the irony is that the Yakuza man is the one who ended up having that "honorable bath"…"

"Another scene is that some other Yakuza chase the researcher inside of a _kabuki_ hall and end up in the lead actor's changing room as he's still with the _kimono_ and the face paint. Enraged at their rude tone, he begins to kick them with his bare feet and swing a prop _katana_ around: they run off and fail! So, the lesson is… Don't underestimate a _kabuki_ actor!"

"Where'd you get those from?"

"Oh, that… A Belgian _bande dessiné_ named "Blake & Mortimer"… One of the adventures happens in Japan… Titled "Professor Sato's Three Formulae"…"

"Interesting."

"The drawings impressed me because they were so realistic… And there are Japanese billboards and banners and all to add to the setting… Feels like a lot of work went into it! They've got some Japanese words and expressions too although some aren't correctly spelled… But it's no wonder because it's from the 70s…" Netto explained.

"I'll check it out later. _Check it out_!" He made a pitchy voice.

"Bright Man, huh?" Enzan recalled.

"Sure. Was flashy. Flashier than Flash Gordon and Flash Man combined: Flashing Flash Gordon Man." Laika laughed.

"Too long!" Netto laughed.

"Yeah. Too long…" Enzan rolled his eyes.

"By the way, Enzan… A lil bird will deliver you blessed fortunes!"

"Huh? I fail to get the point, Laika."

"Don't worry. It'll soon show up with the 4:44 PM Tijuana Express."

"Tijuana~? Oh come on." Enzan was baffled.

"Or maybe you prefer the Aomori Express?"

"What's in Aomori, anyway?"

"Tons of forests." Laika joked.

"How original."

"Isn't it? Heh. I think I finally reached my point…"

"Oho. Then I'll give you a helping hand…"

Netto began to suck Laika's cock at a quick pace and he soon released filling his mouth: Enzan gasped as he felt how his own cock was tightened and he released as well: Laika chuckled while Enzan seemed to be relieved from the stress and wasn't paying attention.

"Heh! Gone straight into the white world… Of fancy music and dancing beauties…" He chuckled.

"You mean the "Beauty" girls from MGS4? If you take too much time to defeat them all becomes a white world… And you can make them dance and make poses if you play that fancy melody from the iPod…" Netto whispered.

"Heh, heh. Beware of the drum can: the best weapon to deal with brainless soldiers… And the Solar Gun… _Taiyo~_!"

"And of the "ritual"…"

"What "ritual"?"

"There's a Nico Nico Douga user named "Running Cardboard Box" that has some weird habits when he plays MGS3… Especially putting on the croc cap and using the torch to quickly dance around and repeatedly move up and down while crouching… It's pretty funny… But his skills are superb: he easily toys with the guards even in Extreme Difficulty Mode… Or comes up with fun scenes… Like placing asleep officers in the lockers and C4 to make them fall into the ground from the locker one after the other!"

"Oho. I'll have to check it out…" Laika grinned.

"And now…"

Netto helped Laika stand up and placed him face-up to Enzan's right while Netto was the left: he pulled the blankets over them and they seemingly began to lick and tickle Enzan.

"Lick-tickle!"

"That ain't fair! Stop it! Guys! It tickles! Hah, hah!"

10:08 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Yeah… Like this, _Buruusu_ …"

"You really like it doggy-style, eh, Saito?"

"Sure… I'm such a masochist… I'm teasing ya, Search Man!"

"I can see that. Try to force me to laugh."

"That a challenge? Heh!"

Saito, Blues and Search Man were also having a threesome: Search Man had taken off the whole of his armor and Blues kept the shades yet he revealed the silver hair he had: Saito was sitting on his fours as Blues stuffed his cock from behind and Saito was licking Search Man's lower body to tease him: Search Man smiled.

"By the way, Blues… Did you find the Silver Wind?"

"Huh? What's that?"

"Maybe it's a Sharo joke."

"Guess that." He didn't seem to get the point.

"Heh. That's also a move in PKMN games…"

"Ah, yeah… I seem to remember having heard it before…"

"Beware!"

"Of what?"

"Of Pikachuu and Zenigame attacking together." Saito grinned.

"Why?"

"100,000 Volts plus Water Gun… The electricity splits the water's atoms into H2 and 0… Combine it with Lizardon's Flame Thrower and… You can guess the result." Saito explained.

"I see. H2 and O are highly flammable gases… An explosion ensues because they ignite."

"And that's what happened in Movie 2, when the guys were trying to free Fire from the cage in the Collector's flying palace."

"You do like going over those old movies, eh?"

"Sure. I was 6 at the time so I didn't really get it despite that I already was a Navi by then… I lacked knowledge. Looking back at it now, over 10 years later, helped me figure it out. Too bad I was too little to properly see the birth of the franchise… I wasn't even 1 year old!"

"Next year will be the 15th anniversary, no?" Blues asked.

"Sure. This year will begin Gen V… I guess we'll get an announcement on the upcoming months…"

"And in the meanwhile you bust the time going over the previous generations, I take it?"

"Sure. And also… Reading _manga_ as well… _PKMN Special_ is good… There are plenty of others and I did check them out but… _Special_ has interesting characters."

"I see. Well, I have fun looking at pro players in MGS… To prove how brainless the soldiers really are… And some funny jokes… There's a character in one of the games, a Major, who turns out to be gay… Although they don't explicitly say it but it's so evident… The female spy says "I'm good at taking off men's clothes but it doesn't work on him!"… Or… If you place a book with provocative pictures of women… All other soldiers and officers immediately turn their attention there but he merely scoffs as if finding it worthless…"

"Heh, heh. I see."

"The Sharo jungle setting was well done too… And the characters were iconic, all of them… Not to mention the radio conversations… There's a point in which there's a trap set… If you trigger it and get hit by the ensuing trunk, the female spy will call you… Saying she forgot to tell you about those… And Snake, the protagonist, merely replies… "I knew it."… To which she assumes he'd figured it out and says… "Well. I don't think you're the type of really stupid guy who'd fall for such a childish trap."…"

"Really? Hah, hah! So that means Snake is a really stupid guy?"

"Yeah. And there are so many jokes… Including some "Secret Theaters" that are official parodies of game scenes… Those make me laugh SO much… They're so crazy…"

"Guess I'll check it out. Will do for a change of airs…"

"OK! I'm going!" Blues warned.

"Heh!"

Blues released inside of Saito and he grinned as Blues pulled out: he and Blues changed positions and Saito began to thrust into Blues next while rubbing his nipples: Blues licked and teased Search Man's cock and Search Man merely smiled.

"You'll have to do better, Blues!"

"Guess that."

"Heh. You feel as good as usual, _Buruusu_." Saito grinned.

"Of course."

"By the way, Blues… Did Davis lend you a voice synthesizer to sing "Daisy, Daisy"?" Search Man asked.

"Oh come on. Of course not. Davis is serious."

"He might have a side of him that loves pranks."

"Maybe."

"Or maybe Lander will introduce you to Lucky Luke."

"The cowboy faster than his shadow, eh?" Saito grinned.

"Sure. Bang, bang! Lucky Luke!"

"Heh. How about this?"

Blues began to pull the balls' skin with the left hand while he quickly rubbed Search Man's cock with the right hand: he didn't even flinch so Blues grumbled and tried to increase the pace: Search Man whistled a tune as if to provoke Blues: Saito grinned and began to rub Blues' cock with his right hand to harden it again: Blues groaned and Saito increased his pace at the same time.

"N-not fair, Saito…!" He laughed.

"All's fair in love, _Buruusu_."

"Sounds like a _cliché_ …!"

"Maybe yea maybe nay."

"Whoa!"

Blues released followed by Search Man and then by Saito: Blues and Saito panted while Search Man wasn't impressed.

"You lacked what it took, Blues the Silver!"

"The Silver…? Well… It's bearable." Blues muttered.

"I'm the ghost of the Lovers' Alley!" Netto joked from outside.

"Sheesh. Netto – kun. Why do you have to interrupt us?"

"I felt like it."

"Next time I'll shower you in cold water."

"Yikes!"

"Search Man here will paint your hair green."

"E~H! NO WAY!" He gasped.

He hurriedly ran away while the others sighed.

"Netto – kun hasn't grown out of pulling pranks from time to time… And to think we've come this far…" Saito muttered.

"Hey. At least he's not as annoying as Cloud Man." Blues reminded him with a sigh.

"HUFF! That guy is UNBEARABLE. Makes me wonder why Twilight hasn't reprogrammed him from scratch yet."

"Guess his enmity with Vadous overcomes that." Blues guessed.

"Guess that."

"Let's try to cheer up." Search Man suggested.

"OK… So… _Buruusu_ … Did you find a pretender?" Saito joked.

"Oh, plenty. Too bad they were already engaged." He joked back with a grin.

"Heh. The other day I stumbled upon that Inosuke Yadeo mister, Mr. Kir Osh's step-brother… He gave me his business card… And said "I can see it on your eyes… The eyes of profound love!"… And left. He must believe he's a seer. Talk about a funny fellow." Saito laughed.

"He was clean, no?" Blues asked.

"Yeah. Totally. He only wants to be advisor for young guys who feel shy to tell another guy they like him… Eboshi – kun had met him twice, too. He only offers his office as a meeting place for both parties and tries to see if, like that, he manages to solve the problem. And he does it free of charge so I guess he actually has another job…"

"Or maybe he owns a property, like a flat, and earns money through the rental of it…" Search Man suggested.

"Could be. Oh well. He's not important."

"Alright."

"Guess we'll soon have news… I guess that Twilight now wants more data on the Rama members and must have lured someone else into a fight to collect more data…" Saito muttered.

"So maybe we should finish up and get on the move…"

"Sure. We had the intense part yesterday evening, anyway."

"OK."

Saito climbed out of the bed and picked his clothes (the school uniform, white boxers and white socks) to dress up while Blues and Search Man reformed their bodysuits and armor: once they were ready Saito fixed up the bed with Blues' help and they exited into the corridor.

"I had a shower yesterday evening so…"

"We'll go fetch the news. You go have your breakfast."

"We'll talk later."

"Sure. Good luck."

"Thanks."

Both Navis dematerialized while Saito hummed a tune and entered the kitchen: he began to ready his breakfast while humming the _Pokémon_ main theme.

"OK! Let's have a salami sandwich today. Salami~…"

 _Heh! Those guys won't be able to bust our morale so easily. Salami~!_

11:51 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Mugro~h! 11th one!"

"And I found yet another spawn point…"

"These guys are weak but they come one after the other: and that pisses me off! By the Zirakzigil! How annoying!"

"Now's not a moment to quote Dwarf names, Balrog…"

"I knew that, Past!"

"Mo~!"

A Navi named Balrog was fighting a horde of Gekkou units that were attacking him.

Balrog looked around two meters tall.

His head was shaped like a demon's with two blackish horns and reddish eye irises as well as sharp teeth: it was protected by a mail around the whole of its volume.

His body was colored red and had black metallic armor with purple diagonal patterns over the surface.

Two small wings with armor over it came out from behind him as well as a tail with a purple flame on it.

His hands and feet ended in sharp claws.

Purple flames surrounded his body.

He was wielding a wrecking ball and a large sharp lance filled with red thorns all over its surface.

His mere presence radiated an intense heat wave.

"Flame Wrecking Ball!"

He formed a wrecking ball surrounded by flames, swung it and flung it at a Gekkou unit as it ran for him while shooting the machinegun yet all rounds bounced off the armor: the blow crushed the "head" of the unit and it was deleted but two more rushed in while shooting grenades at his feet: he merely began to hover and roared as he formed a ring of flames that expanded outwards: it overheated the units and defeated them.

"Hmpf… So it'd seem you can bite, savage…" Freeze Man's voice taunted from somewhere.

"Damn it! Popsicle Man! Come out and fight me!"

"No need to."

"You cowards!"

"Hmpf."

"Cool it down." The Operator, "Past", ordered.

His window only displayed the _Kanji_ _kako_ (past) in purple color.

"And I'm not a savage! I'm a monster! My emblem is hidden under the armor but it says _mamono_ (monster), is colored vermillion and is set against a navy blue background!"

"And what if?"

"Wha~t?"

"You're but a brainless pawn."

"PAWN? AM – sama personally designed and programmed me!"

"To make you think you're important."

"Don't listen to that loser, Balrog. It's a trap."

"Hmpf. A man afraid of his own past…"

"I'm not afraid of it! You're the one who's afraid of losing to us like you lost against Fire Man."

"GRRRR!"

"Focus!" Anaya ordered close by.

"R-roger, my lady!"

"You need someone else to remind you what to do." Past poked.

"GRRR!"

"I said focus!" Anaya hissed.

"I am sorry, but…! It makes me feel VEHEMENTLY DISGUSTED! MA'AM!"

"Then feel VEHEMENTLY COOL!"

"I don't think it makes sense! Ma'am! No offense! Ma'am!"

"16th one!" Balrog finished off another one.

"Yet another spawn point… That makes 6 of them!"

"How annoying! I want to CRUSH them!"

"Don't waste too much energy into this, Balrog. There could be something worse waiting for us. Like a RAY or the REX."

"Sheesh. Fine, fine! 17th one!"

"You know what? Go to the South Pole and learn what real ice is about, Popsicle Man!" Anaya was still discussing with Freeze Man.

"Excuse me?" He gasped.

"Eh…" Twilight timidly called out.

"Yelling Yoe: don't intervene!"

"Why me…?" He groaned.

"Now, now! Ms. Anaya…" Opoulos intervened.

"What now?"

"In-fighting will make us look weak." He warned.

"WHAT? Damn it. Why didn't I think of that?"

"No offense, but I think you let anger cloud your judgment. One should always try to be cool and rational."

"FINE!"

"21st one!"

"And two more spawn points…" Past sighed.

"Be like the Colonel AI and say you're going to do a sortie and handle things yourself!" Anaya told Freeze Man.

"But I'm a disadvantage…!"

"Twilight! Didn't these armors erase elemental damage?"

"Yes, but… There's still a lack of data on that wrecking ball… I'm not sure if it could inflict heavy damage to the armors or not…"

"What are you waiting for?"

"That's why I'm sending little fry to battle this mole: to get more data on this thing." Twilight defended himself.

"I think we're wasting the time with these guys. You should go figure out how to beat that pesky interloper! Can't you use the data on that imitation you made?"

"I tried, but…"

"What now?"

"In theory… That interloper should be weaker but… I'm not sure of what else they can do… They haven't shown their full power yet…"

"And you're chickening out?"

"I s-shall offer no excuses, my lady…"

"Eh… They can hear this…" Freeze Man warned.

"WHAT? SAY THAT EARLIER! SHUT IT OFF!"

The channel finally shut off and both sighed in relief.

"28th one!"

"And 11th spawn point… There's no end to these… I think we'll have to ask for a helping hand… Wait a min… I'm sending an email… There. I called Future and asked if he can send Destruction Man over here to try to locate the source of these." Past explained.

"30th one…! Huh? Speaking of which… They stopped coming." Balrog suddenly noticed.

"Hmmm… Have they given up? No, I don't think so. Remain on your toes and examine the surroundings…"

"Yeah. Guess the real deal's coming."

There was the sound of an engine and an M1126 ICV Stryker vehicle rolled into the area: the rear door lowered and 9 Heel Navis ran out while carrying Stringer missile launchers: they locked on Balrog and shot but he merely generated the heat ring in mid-air and the heat detonated the explosives mounted on the missiles: the Mark 19 40mm grenade launcher on the vehicle began to shoot grenades at him but didn't fare better.

"This ain't the real deal either." Balrog grumbled.

"Yeah. Far from it. It's an attempt to appeal as serious but it's meaningless when faced with you."

"Or me! Hra~h!"

Destruction Man suddenly dashed across the air while loading energy on both fists and unloaded it by hitting the grenade launcher: it bent and blew up while he landed next to Balrog.

"Found a couple spawn points on the way 'ere."

"I see. So the others were decoys and the real ones were outside of my detection range." Past guessed.

"Sure thin'… What were ya expectin' outta these dirty rascals?" Future calmly shrugged.

"Nothing good."

"I can't detect anything odd nearby…" Balrog whispered.

"Let's not lower the guard."

"Hmpf! Today's demonstration is over." A hologram of Freeze Man appeared and fumed.

"Well. If it ain't the retired General Ivan." Destruction Man taunted.

"Hmpf…! One day… We shall turn you into bits and bytes!"

"Cosmo Man and Yamato Man tried to do so and failed." Past reminded him.

"Hmpf. But with this data we'll figure out how to wipe you out once and for all…! Farewell!"

"Annoyin' meddlin' rascal…!" Future grumbled.

"They can try all they want but they won't beat us so easily."

"Well said, _Danna_! Hey, Balrog! Let's go to Higureya later!"

"Sure! To figure out if Higure Yamitarou got blessed by a sneaky bless!"

"Oh come on." Both Operators found Balrog's joke to be stupid.

 _I've got a bad feeling about this… Like it was the calm before the storm!_


	7. Chapter 7: Of electricity

**Chapter 7: Of electricity**

16:16 PM (Japan Time), Sunday January the 21st…

"… Sheesh. I come to visit Rock Man and I instead stumble upon this moron of all possible types."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Sparkling mummy!"

"You're the mummy!"

"And Raoul is the Disco King!"

"I'm not in the mood for that."

"Too bad. Moody Moods dropped by with the 16:16 Louisiana Express?"

"Like I'd knew. Go, Thunder Man!"

"OK!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Bring it on, by Smith!"

Thunder Man was fighting Cloud Man in the Densan City Internet City: both were atop the radio tower and exchanging electrical attacks: neither was capable of harming the other and it seemed to be turning into a stalemate.

"Beware of monkeys who want a cigarette in exchange for a can of Cola~!" He laughed.

"Cut me the bullshit. Fight me." Thunder Man grumbled.

"Mwah, hah, hah. It's coming from the side! Beware!" Cloud Man joked.

"Thunderbolt!" Thunder Man fumed.

A thunderbolt fell down towards Cloud Man but he lifted his blade and captured the electricity: it turned purple and purple light began to glow around it: Thunder Man was hardly impressed and got into defense position as Cloud Man made an exaggerated giggle and flung the blade towards Thunder Man: he simply formed the Lightning Rod Battle Chip and jumped away to put some distance just in case: his hunch turned out to be correct because the Lightning Rod overloaded and exploded while Cloud Man rushed for Thunder Man.

"Elec Beam!"

The circles floating behind him began to frizzled with electricity and streaks of them interconnected those: he then shot a simple streak from his right hand's index finger but it coiled around Cloud Man's blade again: Cloud Man chuckled but Thunder Man didn't lose his cool.

"Lion Thunder!"

He now shot several streaks that shot past Cloud Man to converge in a nearby antenna and then combine into one big beam that flew towards Cloud Man's back: he turned around and made the attack coil around his blade: Thunder Man shot another Elec Beam and more electricity began to coil around the blade: it all suddenly scattered loose in all directions and most of it impacted Cloud Man and momentarily stunned him because he was caught with the guard down: Thunder Man rushed in and delivered a kick on the upper chest that pushed Cloud Man again: he put some distance again and got into defensive stance.

"Man! My blade has a limit to how much electricity it can keep trapped with its EM field… Gotta forge it again… Maybe I should ask the Dwarves of Hyrule to do so… Like they powered up the Master Sword in _Triforce of the Gods_! Hah, hah, hah!" He laughed.

"Watch out, Thunder Man. The guy's surely plotting something new and stronger than before." Raoul whispered.

"OK."

"So~… Did Uncle Smith drop by?"

"Dunno. Maybe Swallow Man knows that and is keeping it a secret to make you look like an idiot."

"WHAT? Shallow Swallow Man!" He growled.

"Eat this! Mega Cannon!"

"Uack! By my might!"

The blast momentarily stunned him and pushed him backwards: Elec Man put some more distance as Cloud Man recovered and formed a cloud while chuckling.

"Grounder Thunder!"

He shot a spheroid filled with electricity at Thunder Man and laughed.

"Hmpf! Elec Beam!"

The Elec Beam hit the spheroid and overloaded it thus destroying it: Cloud Man was rushing for him again and Thunder Man formed a Count Bomb that he kicked at Cloud Man: he instinctively sliced it in half with his blade but it exploded in front of his noses: the momentary distraction was exploited by Thunder Man who shot a Giga Cannon at Cloud Man: the blast was absorbed by some kind of field and vented off in various streaks of energy in countless directions.

"Hi-power weapons won't work, Raoul."

"So it'd seem. But maybe you can pull out that field."

"Good idea. Let's give it a try…"

"What are you 2 whispering about? Whispering won't defeat the great me! Mwah, hah, hah. Dark Cloud!"

He formed a purple cloud that shot forward: Thunder Man shot the Lion Thunder at it to overload it and then roared: Cloud Man gasped as his protective field began to fly away and gather around Thunder Man: he then switched its polarity and shot it back at Cloud Man: the blast spread across his whole body and he growled: Thunder Man rushed in and delivered another kick to his jaw and one to the waist to make him fall into the ground before jumping away: Cloud Man recovered and grumbled under his breath.

"No more Mr. Nice!" He signaled Thunder Man with his right hand's index finger.

"About time. You're slower than a turtle." Thunder Man taunted.

"Wha~t?"

"Swallow Man says that!"

"Shallow Swallow Man! I'm so gonna kick your arse!"

"Coming today or tomorrow?"

"GHKGHSLHGDH!" He growled.

"Guess that means never." Raoul taunted next.

"Why these rascals…! I'm pissed off! For real!"

"Cloud Man! Don't disobey my orders! The Dark Generator is off-limits until I say so!" Freeze Man suddenly warned.

"Huh! R-roger, sir!"

"And so is the trump card!"

"U-understood."

"Now fight!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"So. Coming?" Thunder Man played the bored.

"You'll regret pissing me off!"

"That remains to be seen."

"The Obscure Demon King, Summerill, will burn you to ashes!" He tried to impress him.

"Quoting RPG guys' names won't make you win either."

"Grrr… Gra~h!"

He rushed for Thunder Man while his whole body emitted electricity around him: Thunder Man saw it coming and stepped forward.

"Elec Wheel!"

"Wha!"

The Elec Wheel robbed the electricity off Cloud Man, charged it with Thunder Man's own and curved to head back at Cloud Man and hit him face-on: he groaned and collapsed on the rooftop they were at: Thunder Man kicked his face and he lost balance so he dropped and crashed into the street while forming a crater there: Cloud Man managed to get to his feet but he wasn't in top shape: Thunder Man calmly dropped there and assumed a fighting stance: Cloud Man roared and rushed for him again but Thunder Man crouched and gripped the chest armor to then perform a _judo_ hold and throw him to land feet first into a magma pool Thunder Man had readied beforehand: he got stuck there and tried to get out yet 3 thunderbolts rained down on him and he grumbled: he formed a long whip sparkling with electricity and flung it towards Thunder Man but he simply grabbed it with the right hand and pulled it to break most of it.

"I absorbed this toy's childish voltage too."

"Childish? It's 500,000 Volts!" He grumbled.

"Meh! For me it's like it was 5 Volts."

"Sheesh. And here I wanted to prove I'm the king of Electrical Attribute Navis…! Above you and Elec Man and Magnet Man…!"

"You picked a bad opponent. Or, rather… You expected that I'd get impressed and I wouldn't be able to properly react. If that's the case, then you underestimated me. Greatly."

"I had that hunch." Freeze Man grumbled.

"I s-shall offer no apologies, sir!" Cloud Man gulped.

"Whatever. Zoan Gate Man!"

"Roger. Remote Gate!"

The Remote Gate formed next to Cloud Man and the Devil Hand emerged to grip Cloud Man and pull him out of the pool and inside of the Remote Gate: it closed and Thunder Man began to look around as if he expected a treacherous attack: sure enough, a new Remote Gate silently formed behind him and he jumped as it opened and a blast of the Gate Cannon flew across the air: Thunder Man aimed his right hand there and shot five electrical bursts that hit Zoan Gate Man inside given the yelp that ensued: the Remote Gate vanished and Thunder Man continued to scan his surroundings in a mistrustful manner.

"What. You ran out of ideas?" He challenged.

Nothing happened: Thunder Man shrugged and walked away from the scene as if nothing had happened.

"Barely worth our time." He muttered.

"Yeah… Let's go meet Netto." Raoul confirmed.

"We're not stupid. Those guys are holding back in purpose. They're saving power up for something again." Thunder Man warned.

"Yeah. Unfortunately, we dunno what it's about."

"Let's hope it's not something like last time. That was too close…! Weren't if for THAT guy… We might've lost!"

18:28 PM (Japan Time)…

"… I don't think this is the handiwork of some novice programmer in this campus, sir."

"I think the same thing, Axe Man. This must be what Priest – sama warned me about: a ploy by Neo Gospel."

"Hmpf. They're but fools who rely on proxies."

"Indeed, Axe Man."

A Navi named Axe Man was battling inside of a Cyber World somewhere.

Axe Man's azure eye irises were protected by the helmet's protection

He looked like a medieval knight with azure armor covered in bronze diamond patterns.

He carried a large axe on his right hand and an octahedron shield on his left one adorned with the word "Rama" colored golden.

His legs and arms had sparkling ivory patterns spinning around their surface.

He looked over a meter and eighty tall and his axe emitted an unsettling sparkle of cleanness to it.

His symbol was the _Kanji_ _ono_ or "axe" colored forest green and set against a white-colored background.

"What should be done, Present – sama?"

"Slice them."

"Roger, sir."

His Operator, Present, used a window that displayed the _Kanji_ _genzai_ (present) was drawn in green.

"Hrah! Hah!"

He was currently fighting a horde of Dwarf Gekkou units: there could be over 20 of them and they were jumping to latch into him and try to stun him with their low voltage yet they didn't manage to impress Axe Man: he lifted the axe and neatly split 8 of them in half: he quickly tossed it into the air and caught it back to change it to horizontal position.

"Rubbish."

He swung the axe again and cut off another 8 that where jumping towards him from the front, the SW and the SE: he glanced over his shoulder and quickly turned around to bring down the axe into one that was rolling across the ground towards him: he lifted the axe and directed a mistrusting glare at his surroundings: sure enough, another horde of 30 of them appeared and began to advance by rolling or jumping or crawling: he built up energy on the axe and hit the floor to open a crevice: energy travelled across its length and knocked the enemies into the sides: he crouched and jumped several meters into the air to fly towards there, higher and faster than one would expect from him: he hit the ground and caused a ring-shaped shockwave to spread and further knock enemies off the ground: he began to jump and land to deliver attacks with his axe to crush them: a familiar sound rang out and, suddenly, 3 "Blue – Eyes White Dragon" monsters appeared there: they began to load their attacks and Axe Man calmly stood there, waiting.

"Burst Stream of Destruction!" Kaiba Seto's voice ordered.

Axe Man suddenly jumped and the 3 beams converged into the spot where he'd been at: an explosion and dust ensued as the ground was partly destroyed there: Axe Man flew over the dragons and simply dropped the axe: it cut off the neck of the leftmost dragon and hit the floor: the other 2 didn't react so Axe Man picked the axe and effortlessly beheaded the other 2: there was a larger roar and the "Ultimate Blue – Eyes Dragon" suddenly formed there: it loaded up energy but Axe Man shrugged as he began to quickly jump towards the right: the dragon shoot its attack but it was continuous instead of a single blast and began to chase Axe Man as he circled around its mole: he suddenly jumped into the air and quickly landed on the dragon's back: it tried to agitate the body using the wings but Axe Man unceremoniously beheaded the 3 heads as well: a growl of frustration rang out from close by.

"Hmpf. Swallow Man, was it? Your childish games don't work on me: my colleagues may be more emotion-biased but I'm another tale." He dully announced.

"Sheesh!" Swallow Man cursed from close by.

"I'll bring your head to my Lord." Axe Man coolly announced.

"YIKES!"

"Remain composed, Swallow Man! That man isn't authorized to do that so he won't do it… And you're not in the scene to begin with!" Freeze Man scolded.

"R-roger, sir…! T-true, sir… It's just that…"

"Enough. Focus!"

"R-roger, sir…! Eat this!"

A boulder fell from atop but Axe Man merely jumped to its encounter and sliced it along with the Count Bomb hidden inside of it: he moved away as the bomb exploded but did no damage: the halves of the empty rock hit the ground and shattered while Axe Man simply landed in a calm manner: there was a sound and another Axe Man having a zombie-like head instead ran for him while moaning and having blades instead of hands that looked like they were red hot close to melting point: Axe Man was hardly impressed by that grotesque parody so he simply aimed the end of the axe's bar at it: a hatch opened and a dart flew off: it stabbed the forehead of the enemy and detonated: the explosion was small but served to stun the enemy: Axe Man quickly rushed there and swung the axe horizontally to slice the enemy in two by the waist and destroy the core: the enemy was deleted.

"Is that all?" He challenged.

"Sheesh." Swallow Man grumbled.

"Swallow Man…!" Freeze Man was getting annoyed.

"W-well, I…!" He began to argue.

"I want no more excuses! Do SOMETHING! NOW!"

"R-roger, sir…! Grrr…! Have this for a change!"

The ground rumbled as an avalanche rushed towards Axe Man: cracks formed on the ground and flames erupted from them while thunderbolts began to fall around: hail ensued along with fog but Axe Man didn't lose his cool: he merely shrugged and dug a hole under his feet: he hid inside of a cavity he'd dug up and made up a stone cover to seal it up: he simply waited for the avalanche to stop and used an Area Steal to emerge again.

"I-impossible!" Swallow Man gasped.

"I'm an adult. Not an immature child." He drily reminded them.

"F-fuck!"

Freeze Man was grumbling aloud close by and Swallow Man gulped as if he feared Freeze Man would punish him.

"I heard those rascals were back at it! Where are they?" Balrog suddenly rushed in.

"Hmmm… Who is AM – sama?"

"Huh? What? AM – sama? Dunno."

"Then die. Impostor."

Axe Man suddenly rushed for "Balrog" and easily sliced him in half: the two halves became black mass and reverted to a bulky Security Navi: both halves hit the ground and were deleted.

"Why didn't you add more data to it?" Freeze Man hissed.

"T-though t-that…" Swallow Man stuttered.

"That your opponent was stupid, huh?"

"Y-yes, sir…" He admitted.

"Do you want me to replace you with a gorilla?" He threatened next.

"N-no, sir…!"

"Then use your damned CPU!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"It'd seem they can't do better than that. Good. Then we'll let everyone know… The whole world… That this is the best you can do." Present calmly taunted.

"E~H?"

"You damned FOOL!"

"I am sorry, sir…!"

"Like that'll change anything! FOOL!"

"They can pull things like that of London from time to time but most of the time are this weak and stupid." Present taunted next.

"Grrr…!"

"Did you think that appealing as weak would make us get confident in battle? And then you'd suddenly turn serious: would that help you beat us easily?"

"I did tell Twilight – sama but…! He was so confident that this tactic would work out…!" Freeze Man hissed.

"Hmpf. Then that man is no more than a fool who gets confident and has reality distortion field."

"ENOUGH! Swallow Man! Out of my sight! NOW! I FEEL RABIDLY DISGUSTED!" Freeze Man exploded.

"Uwa~h!" Swallow Man yelped and ran away as if he was going to be slaughtered alive.

The channel shut down so Axe Man shrugged and merely placed his axe vertically.

"There is no enemy presence, Present – sama."

"Good enough. Check that there aren't any backdoors or spawn points or some cowardly tactic left behind."

"By your will."

"SOMEONE GIMME A HOSE! I SO WANNA SHOWER THOSE IDIOTS IN COLD WATER!" A woman yelled close by.

"Uh-oh. Masada – sensei got another fit of anger. Guess her students pulled something stupid again." Present grimly muttered.

"MY KINGDOM FOR A HOSE!"

"Calm down, Masada!" Another woman sighed.

"Cha go broom the office, Sereida~! I FEEL OVERWHELMINGLY DISGUSTED!"

"What have I done to deserve this?" Present sighed in defeat.

Axe Man rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat as well…

22:22 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So. We have all gathered. Priest – sama will now speak to us. Past. Future."

"Roger that, Present."

"He must want details: we did send him reports but…"

"… What? An imitator of mine, Axe Man?"

"Yes. But with low intelligence and knowledge."

"Hmmm… That description ya made… Think I've heard it somewhere before… Need to dig into my archives…"

Axe Man, Balrog and Destruction Man had gathered in a warehouse somewhere: their Operators' windows were open and they were all talking to each other: the Navis did the same.

"This is Priest."

"Priest – sama."

A new window popped up: like the other 3, it only displayed the _Kanji shisai_ (priest) colored black.

"So. They're holding back in purpose. And think that'll make us get confident." Priest got down to business.

"Yes, sir. It'd seem it's another of Twilight's reality distortion fields. Another of his fits of arrogance." Present replied.

"Hmmm… Did they let out anything important?"

"No, sir. Freeze Man only seems to piss off more and more with every passing day." Future reported.

"The usual tactic of pitting Cloud Man against Swallow Man and vice versa still works so they haven't changed in that aspect." Past added.

"What about that Darth Bapgei?"

"My sources told me he tried to stalk Net Savior Blackdesu but was recognized: Ijuuin barely got the man." Past reported.

"Hum. That could've been useful to lure Twilight out of hiding before he was ready for some other ploy…" Priest muttered.

"What about you guys? Did you notice anything?" A Navi's voice asked in the meanwhile.

"AM – sama." They all saluted.

"Let's get down to business."

"Roger, sir. They seem to have an obsession over mixing up games and animation." Axe Man reported.

"I saw your report. Apart from that?"

"They get arrogant and improve without thinking that these improvements are highly likely to fail."

"They also rely on cheats like spawn points." Balrog grumbled.

"Or parodies. That thing Axe Man said sounded like an attempt to mix in _Biohazard_ or survival horror."

"They must be up to something big again. Last time they did that and the other time that of the Empire State… And let's not forget the fuss he made in the summer…" The Navi, "AM", muttered.

"Sheesh! We almost had the guy but slipped away by inches! It feels so frustrating!" Balrog grumbled.

"Greetings, Reclaimers." A cherry voice rang out.

"Huh? Spark, huh… Eh… Could you come later? We're in the midst of an important chat."

"Oh, is that so? Reclaimers. And here I wanted to…"

"Tell us you're gonna be the baseball in the next game at Koshien Stadium…"

"Vexation!"

Guilty Spark 343 suddenly hovered in the warehouse and began to say something only to be cut by a lame joke by Balrog and he got annoyed on the spot: the other 3 sighed.

"Balrog. Shut up." AM ordered.

"R-roger." He gulped.

"And, Spark… He's waiting for you to tell you more about things."

"Oh, is that so? Excellent! But before that… 10 orbits, 5 loops, 7 dives, 6 ascensions, 9 flips…" He began to list.

"Yeah, yeah. We know the tune, man. Excellent, excellent." Destruction Man sighed and was trying to shoo him away.

"Impatience!" He complained.

"So it would seem." Axe Man dully commented.

"Not you too." AM complained.

"I apologize." He calmly apologized.

"Oh well! I shall go visit that person. Stay healthy and beware of the Duck Illness. As reported by Explosive News."

"That's misinformation by Cloud Man, Monitor…" Priest sighed and seemed to be tired of repeating it the whole time.

"Vexation!"

"Yeah, I know… So what?"

"Hum! Infinite questions, limited answers!"

"Guess that." AM muttered.

"I need some clean airs and gusts and winds! Farewell! Vexation!" Guilty Spark fumed.

Spark hovered away and left the place while AM cleared his throat and called for their attention again.

"Always be on the lookout. And keep records of your movements and actions. Maybe they're trying to use imitators to frame us. But they won't have it easy. My word." He told them.

"Ah! I found it! The Desert Wraiths, AM – sama…!"

"The Desert Wraiths? What about them?"

"They made up that "mimic" thing that uses the same mass as that "Shadow Devil" weapon to recreate the appearance of someone… Twilight was in good terms with 2 women who were part of the gang… And they surely told him about the tech. And thus Twilight decided to recycle it to confuse us." Destruction Man explained.

"I see! Good finding, Destruction Man."

"It was nothing. I just happened to dig into my archives."

"Good."

"So… We should be on the lookout for attempts to smear our names and reputations." Axe Man summarized.

"In essence."

"And of leeches…" Past fumed.

"You needn't tell me… Had to shake off 3 of them in 5 days… Their Darkloids are bad at battling so that madwoman thought that she could pressure us through the real world… That traitor leaked out data on our IDs so… And it'd seem they pressured that Ancient old man to confess some stuff too…" Future grumbled.

"Yeah. Prophetess hacked into you guys' PETs and that's how she figured out everyone's IDs." Priest fumed.

"First I thought the gal had stalked me when she showed up one morning on my door but… That wasn't the case…"

"I'm sorry. I choose the wrong person. That was a fatal error in judgment…" Priest sighed.

"Ah! No, no! I'm not sayin' that the _Danna – sama_ is to blame… I'm sorry, _Danna – sama_!" Future nervously apologized.

"I'm not offended, Future. One must be conscious of their mistakes if they want to learn from them."

"Hum… Indeed, sir. You needn't feel guilty. We all make mistakes because we are humans, after all. Nobody's perfect, sir." Present calmly reassured him.

"You're right, Present. Did you have trouble with leeches too?"

"No. Maybe Anaya thought they wouldn't work on me. Or has no interest on me to begin with."

"Could be. Seeing how you're older than Past and Future… Oh well. Be on the lookout, nevertheless. You can't trust them not to pull something."

"Acknowledged."

"Any more questions?" AM asked the Navis.

"If we find an impostor… We beat 'em up?" Balrog asked.

"Affirmative. They surely have no valuable info. Try asking a fake question: if they answer like they believe that it's true then they're clearly a fake. And try to scan them too." AM ordered.

"Aye, aye!" Destruction Man acknowledged.

"Report to me any more encounters with those."

"Roger."

"I'll expedite alternate frequencies and meeting places just in case: we don't want the enemy to spy on us, after all… And I did search this place but it's clean and there are no Mettools or Viruses spying either. Else I'd said so to begin with."

"If those fakes appear before me… I shall slice them up." Axe Man coolly looked at his gleaming axe.

"Go ahead. Show them we're not intimidated."

"Hah! My wrecking ball will blow them up like balloons!"

"Don't get confident." Past sighed.

"Hum… If they dare to show up in our bike store then I'm gonna run into them with the bike." Destruction Man calmly muttered.

"Of course: Bike Power!" Future laughed.

"Confidence leads to an early defeat." Present reminded them.

"I know, Present. But morale is also important, no?" Priest argued back.

"Ah. True, sir. I apologize if I was too blunt with my words."

"Don't mind it. Let's return, AM."

"Roger, sir. We'll be in contact. Glory to Rama!"

"Glory to Rama!"

The line shut down so the Navis nodded at each other and saluted towards where the screen had been at.

 _Let's find a weakness in the enemy… And exploit… Glory to Rama…!_


	8. Chapter 8: Encounters

**Chapter 8: Encounters**

09:18 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday January the 23rd…

"… Good morning, Obihiro – kun."

"Good morning, Meijin – san."

" _San wa iranai_!"

"I know, sir. Here's the report, sir."

"Excellent! Good job, as usual."

"Thank you, sir."

Meijin walked into a Science Labs office where Obihiro Shun was working at with a laptop: Obihiro turned the chair around to greet him and handed him a USB pen: Meijin pocketed it on his coat's right pocket.

"By the way. Would you like to come with me to Maha Ichiban's at lunch time?"

"Of course, sir."

"Good."

"Good morning…" Yuuichirou joined them while looking rather sleepy.

"Hikari – hakase, sir… Did you go to sleep late?"

"Yes… There was an old movie that Haruka and I wanted to see… _Casablanca_ …"

"Ah yes. You'd said it was one of your favorites, sir."

"Is the _ramen_ application done?"

" _Ramen_ application?"

"Huh? Did I say _ramen_?"

"You did, sir."

"Crap. My mistake. I mean the vector application." He corrected.

"Almost. I'm debugging it."

"Good. Did you check on the new workers?"

"They all behave and do the job in an efficient manner."

"Perfect. Keep it up, Meijin… Oh! Obihiro – kun. I hadn't seen you, sorry. Good morning."

"It's nothing, sir. Good morning, sir."

Meijin's PET beeped and he checked it out: a Police Navi appeared onscreen and saluted.

"Meijin – san: a visitor. His name is Colonel."

"Patch me to him: I need to ask him one thing."

"Roger, sir. Here you have, sir."

"Hello there." Colonel calmly greeted.

"One question, Colonel… You've got a superior named General, no?"

"No. I don't."

"Good. Then you're the real one. A fake would most probably take it literally and reply "yes"." Meijin told him.

"I heard about Neo Gospel plotting to reuse Desert Wraiths technology: and I found a quick method to disable it…"

"What is it?"

"EM pulses. Like the Destroy Pulse Battle Chip…"

"Good. I'll let everyone know."

"Did you check if there's nothing out of place in the Time Space Tower, Colonel?" Yuuichirou asked.

"I did, of course. There was nothing. He and I searched every nook and cranny. Real world included. I think Twilight is afraid of coming closer to here seeing what happened last time." Colonel explained.

"Serves the rascal well." Meijin muttered.

"Truly. And I did check the surroundings of the Science Labs' outermost firewalls but found nothing unusual. If you allow me then I'll check the insides as well."

"Please do so. Laser Man did so yesterday but you never know."

"Fine. Leave it to me."

"Thanks."

"It's nothing. I don't want those to get away with it, either."

Colonel moved elsewhere and Meijin pocketed his PET: he nodded to Yuuichirou and both headed out so Obihiro resumed working while humming a tune.

"Dr. Hikari…? Ah. He's already left?"

"Ah. Dr. Regal, sir. Good morning, sir."

"Ah. Obihiro – kun. Good morning."

"Hikari – hakase was here not even 2 minutes ago. I think he's headed for his lab, sir."

"Good. Thank you."

Dr. Regal walked in from a door at the left and Obihiro greeted him: he greeted back with a smile and looked around: Obihiro told him where Yuuichirou had gone at so he waved good-bye and walked out through the front door.

 _Let's not focus on creating the GUI… According to the planning, it must have this look and the type of letter must be a Serif type…_

He checked some papers which had sketches and mock-ups of the GUI along with some hand-written notes on the corners: Obihiro calmly began to program it and didn't notice someone looking at him from the side door which was slightly opened.

 _Huh? There's some air current… And the AC isn't on, either. Is there some door open? Maybe Dr. Regal forgot to properly shut the side door…? Yeah, so it'd seem…_

Obihiro stood up and headed for it: the figure calmly and silently slipped away before he could reach the door: he was about to shut it when he frowned and looked into the corridor: it was brightly illuminated, as usual, and there were some doors plus a flight of stairs leading to the basement level: shrugging, he shut the door.

 _I had the feeling there was someone there but… It's got to be my imagination… Maybe I'm still a bit edgy given what happened not too long ago… Paranoia won't lead anywhere: let's resume the work!_

He sat back on the chair to work and also sipped some water from a glass nearby: he kept on humming a tune and didn't see how the front door opened (because his desk was facing the wall) by a slight margin: Obihiro frowned and changed the angle of the screen: he purposely did a momentary stop to blacken the screen and have it act like a mirror: he could see the slightly open front door.

 _So it wasn't my imagination! I'm sure it's none of the employees: they're all very serious and passed strict tests…_

"Who's there?" He quickly stood up, turned around, and called out.

"Hmpf… I'm the envoy of Hell…" A distorted voice rang out.

"Trying to imitate Gray Fox?" He challenged.

"Maybe."

"You wouldn't be Anaya Maria, right?"

"Unfortunately for you… I am!"

The door was pulled open and Anaya was there: she'd put on a researcher coat, a blue wool jumper, jeans, socks and sneakers

She'd also put on a couple of plastic frame glasses.

"What do you want from me?" He demanded.

"I was just looking on. You interest me because we share a common enemy…"

"Get out of my life." He hissed.

"So that's your true self…" She smirked.

"Like I care."

"Tee, heh, heh. You're interesting… When you reveal that anger and hatred sealed inside of you…"

"Don't make fun of me!" He closed his right fist.

"Yeah… That face of hatred and anger and humiliation… It's something only a true ruler can really experience…! When you have the power to make others tremble!"

"Get out of here! Leech!"

"Heh. They used to call me Leech Queen…" She smirked.

"Then you'll become that same monstrosity Dr. James Marcus became!"

"WHAT?" She got annoyed.

"You said it yourself." He taunted.

"Why the nerve of this brat!"

"Hmpf. Twilight might actually be working for the DIA, you know?"

"NO WAY~!" She turned white on the spot.

"You never know. Betrayal is the path of the Sith, no?"

"B-b-but…! N-no! It's a trap! Ki~h!"

"What's this ruckus?" Dr. Regal questioned as he showed up behind Anaya.

"Dr. Regal! Call security! It's Anaya Maria!"

"WHAT?"

"Sheesh. Time to scram! Eat this!"

"Uack!"

She suddenly drew a cigarette from her coat's chest pocket and put in on her mouth to then blow air into it: some gas hit Dr. Regal's face and he was momentarily dizzied: Anaya made a run for it with Obihiro chasing her down the main corridor: they ran past the lobby and outside where a blue navy van was waiting with the engine on and with Izono on the pilot's seat: she jumped into the cargo area and it sped away: Obihiro made a grimace.

"Disappear." He icily muttered.

"Cough, cough… Stinking gas! What a villain!" Dr. Regal caught up, coughing.

"Truly, sir…! They don't know when to give up!"

"We need to strengthen the real world security or else they will begin to walk in and out whenever they feel like it!"

Obihiro silently nodded in agreement and closed both fists…

09:09 AM (Scotland Time)…

"… The Court of Owls has sentenced you to… die."

"… The Court of Owls has sentenced you to… die."

"… The Court of Owls has sentenced you to… die."

"… The Court of Owls has sentenced you to… die."

"… How annoying. Like broken cassette tapes. They can only repeat the same thing over and over again, Anderson – sama."

"I know, Annihilator Man. Four of them and they only know to say that… Bapgei must feel like annoying us to make a mistake. But we won't fall for such a childish trap."

"Roger, sir."

A Navi named Annihilator Man was fighting against 4 copies of Darth Bapgei (wearing that odd outfit).

Annihilator Man's face was colored in a teal brown color and his eyes' irises were a mix of purple and black.

His helmet's forehead had an eight-pointed black and white jewel set on it: three purple stripes travelled from behind to the front.

The Navi was colored white with some black spiral patterns travelling up the arms and legs.

He had two gun-like objects colored black and white respectively and connected to something on his back by thick tubes.

His hands had purple octahedron-shaped patterns on top of them.

His emblem was the _Kanji_ _hametsu_ (annihilation) colored white and set against a gray background plus having a purplish edge.

His feet's fingers ended in claw-like extensions.

He seemed to be close to two meters tall.

"Eat this!"

He began to load energy using his guns: a purple beam and a white beam clashed and gave birth to a very transparent gray spheroid: it slowly grew in size and stopped once it was stabilized.

"Be gone."

He shot a thin gray beam from the spheroid at one of the enemies as it ran towards him with the blades drawn: the blast hit him and a small shockwave ensued: the enemy was neatly deleted in just an instant: the other 3 didn't react and rushed for him.

"Light Beam! Dark Beam!"

Annihilator Man shot his white cannon first: a white beam of light hit the enemy and the heat it carried along set it on fire: the purple cannon shot a mass of purple and black particles glued together: it hit another enemy and attached to them while causing the enemy to be frozen in place: Annihilator Man then rushed towards there and delivered a kick with the right foot to beat the paralyzed enemy and tackled the burning enemy with the left shoulder to toss them into the ground and delete them as well: only one was left and it formed countless knives hovering in the air in front and to the sides: they flew for Annihilator Man but he merely turned on a Dream Aura and they were all neutralized: Annihilator Man then switched the cannons for swords having the same coloring as each respective cannon: the enemy drew the short blades and rushed for Annihilator Man as well: the second was faster, though, and simply sliced the enemy in four pieces by performing an "X" shaped attack: he then looked around.

"Any other signatures, Anderson – sama?"

"No. But I'm sure something else's coming."

"Roger, sir."

His Operator window opened to display Anderson, his Operator.

He was about sixteen or seventeen years old: had purple eye irises and silver-like hair.

From what it could be seen, he wore a thick red wool jumper.

"I don't think that it's Freeze Man in person. He got a taste of my abilities some months ago." Annihilator Man guessed.

"Of course not. It'll be a proxy."

"Or not!" A voice rang out.

"That's… Cosmo Man, huh?"

"Indeed… I've come to show you the power of the Universe!"

"Sounds like that's above Twilight's."

"HUH! I meant… The power of the Universe granted to me by Twilight – sama!"

Cosmo Man showed up there and made a proclamation so Annihilator Man pointed out he sounded like he was stronger than Twilight: Cosmo Man got nervous and improvised a correction.

"Ah. I see." He wasn't surprised.

"Grrr…!"

"So? Feeling the Sharo winter in your Caucasus hideout?"

"Caucasus? Who said we there?" He was surprised.

"The MI6 in a special Westminster Parliament meeting when questioned by the opposition regarding if they'd advanced in their search for you lot…" He shrugged.

"Mwah, hah, hah. And you believed a blatant lie aimed at satisfying a bunch of politicians?" Cosmo Man mocked.

"Who knows? Maybe I thought it was a useful taunt."

"What?" He grumbled.

"If you don't have anything better to do then flee."

"Who will flee?" He got annoyed.

"Yamato Man says so."

"Damn it! Yamato Man. You're one to TALK!" He grumbled.

"Cosmo Man…!" Freeze Man hissed.

"Yikes!"

"Behave like a man! Not like a rookie!"

"R-roger, sir! Cosmo Gate~!"

"Nice special effects. Did you hire Marvel studios to produce them?"

"Wha~t? Impossible!"

Cosmo Man opened the Cosmo Gate but nothing happened: Annihilator Man dully glared at it for a second before facing Cosmo Man again who gasped in disbelief.

"Cosmo Man…!" Freeze Man fumed.

"Ah! I forgot to gather energy to form the planetoids…!"

"You didn't "forget"! You got confident and rushed it! Navis don't forget and Darkloid don't either! Your files are where they should be at: no – one switched their folders!"

"I am deeply sorry!"

"Do SOMETHING! ANYTHNG! Or we'll be LAUGHED at! AGAIN!"

"Y-yes, sir! The Cosmo Gate failed but…! I've got this blade…! The Absorber Blade! Activate!"

He unsheathed the blade and it gleamed before it turned black and began to absorb system electricity: it began to glow in a dull red color yet it steadily turned brighter before it became crimson red.

"Get ready… Crimson Slash!"

He swung the blade and a series of 5 "Sonic Boom" colored crimson shot out towards Annihilator Man: the first one was powerful enough to overcome his Dream Aura yet the other 4 missed him and were repelled towards the sides: Cosmo Man gasped as Annihilator Man simply began to run for him with his blades drawn: Cosmo Man ran for him as well and swung yet Annihilator Man ducked and dodged before stabbing the purple blade into the left hip and the white blade on the right hip: they got through some of the armor and Cosmo Man used an Area Steal to warp behind Annihilator Man: he was about to attack when the earlier "Crimson Slash" energy formations converged on him from behind and easily cut through most of his rear armor: Annihilator Man quickly turned around and tackled Cosmo Man with his right shoulder to make him recoil: he stepped into a mine placed under his feet and the explosion knocked him off the ground, into the air, and then back into the ground in face-up position: Cosmo Man warped to some meters away.

"Claymore…!" He grumbled.

"Blame your petty master for giving us the idea." Anderson taunted.

"Sheesh. I knew it wasn't a good idea yet…!" Cosmo Man grumbled.

"Stop complaining! Fight!" Freeze Man ordered.

"Roger, sir…! Giga Count Bomb! Have this!"

Cosmo Man formed the Giga Count Bomb and threw it at Annihilator Man while rushing for him but stepped into yet another Claymore and his attack was cancelled: Annihilator Man shot his Light Beam at the bomb to detonate it mid-air: Cosmo Man began to rise but a powerful beam suddenly attacked his back and pierced through what remained of his rear armor: he roared as purplish energy began to leak from inside of his body and into the outside: he whipped around and found that the attacker was Guilty Spark 343.

"No interlopers shall damage this ring!" He proclaimed.

"Damned it all. The eyeball got in the way! And it can fight!"

"Vexation! Vexation! Vexation!" Spark got annoyed.

"Enough, Cosmo Man! You're leaking energy, your Dark Generator is damaged and you lack rear armor. Critical condition!"

"R-roger, sir! Grrr! One day you shall become spatial dust!"

"Come anytime. Smug Mister Cosmos." Anderson challenged.

"Sentinels! Expel the intruder!" Spark ordered.

Cosmo Man snarled something and made his escape: Annihilator Man shrugged and Anderson sighed in relief.

"Phew. We shook the guy off."

"But then again that wasn't their real power. Like we discussed with the members the other day… Maybe they're distractions so that they can pull something from the real world again. Maybe it's related to Anaya's intrusion into the Science Labs. Like how Laser Man told us."

"Yeah. Father did tell me. Let's inform him of this too."

"I shall return to the Control Room. Vexation! I am not an eyeball!"

 _They must aim to attack from the real world! But… Where and when?_

23:34 PM (Honolulu Time), Monday January the 22nd…

"… So, Liquid – chan… Is the plot progressing?"

"Yes, my lady… I'm writing it on paper to be on the safe side…"

"Good. Did Naomi tell you to dance?"

"Excuse me?"

"Gotcha."

"… Yes, my lady…"

"Tee, heh, heh. That defeated face… Truly exquisite!"

"As you wish, my lady…"

Twilight had been writing stuff in a paper placed atop several others including schematic print-outs, arrows, circles, crossed, annotations, exclamation marks and question marks: Anaya crept into him from behind since the door was behind him: she began to pull silly jokes on him and he sighed, resigned.

"But I think that those guys will catch up… That intrusion into the Science Labs might've been a bad idea, my lady…"

"Why?"

"Could make them think our tactics insofar are diversions and the real deal will come from the real world…"

"Crap. I was eager to examine the kid and…!"

"Can't be helped, my lady. What's done is done. But at least they must think that it's very probable I'm aiming for _kyoudai_."

"Good. Maybe we could make a blunder and let out a hint that makes that sound highly probable."

"Yeah. Maybe they'll think that my hacking there was a test to see if it was possible to intrude."

"Perfect."

"But there's no 100% guarantee. They might still think it's a decoy."

"Huff. You're right. But we can't make it too obvious either."

"Exactly."

"By the way… Is it me or Bapgei is taking a lot of breaks as of late?"

"Could be. But to compensate those he does intense training sessions, more than needed… He wants to know his limits and try to figure if there's a way to go over those."

"Hmmm…"

"My lady. Bapgei is loyal."

"I don't question that. It's just that… Nothing. I'm being paranoid. The guy needs his free time too. That's all." She shrugged it off.

"He joined of his own will. And he's not "scandalized" because he's taken part in the stuff plenty of times."

"Of course. That's what makes him loyal. And his rivalry with Nelaus fuels him up too." She grinned.

"Yes, my lady."

"Good. Let's focus on "Global Winds", the name of the operation."

"I'm still worried that it feels like a tell it all."

"Could be. But maybe they'll think it's a decoy name to lure their attention elsewhere. We could carry out a diversion attack elsewhere one or two days before and claim "this is Global Winds! You fell for it!"…"

"Could work. I apologize for the tone but taking into account that there's the Committee backing them…"

"I know. But maybe it's worth a try. No?"

"Allow me a few hours to think it over and decide a place. Maybe a windmill power plant… To spread fear and terror…" He suggested.

"It'd fit with the name. We could make them think it means something big but turned out to be something small. Let's frustrate them." Anaya smirked.

"As you desire."

"Did the Princess of Desire ask you out for a dance?"

"No, my lady. I know no such person."

"Kidding. They don't exist!"

"I am sorry."

"I did tell you not to take all of my statements literally, no?"

"It's that… We were having a serious talk, my lady, so…"

"Fine, fine. Let's not fight over that. Remember my orders: don't meddle with the women… I'll handle them. You take care of the men. And never insult a woman."

"Have I ever done so?"

"No, as far as I know. But I felt like you need a reminder. A strict Boss must remind the subordinate of what he's supposed to do and what he's not supposed to do." She calmly replied.

She drew a package of mint-flavored chewing gum and began to munch it while Twilight picked the schematics and checked them again: he then picked another hand-drawn plan of some buildings and a perimeter: some letters had been placed in one position and others in an alternate position.

"So most of us would take care of the front attack, the diversion attack, while Bapgei intrudes and gets the prize…" He exposed.

"Good. Tee, heh, heh. Time to settle the score with these guys… There are some excellent preys there too… But it will be hard to catch them during the attack… Maybe Bapgei can pick one for me… Will do for a change of airs… Tee, heh, heh…" She made a sinister smile.

"As you wish." Twilight calmly acknowledged.

"My lady?" Izono knocked on the door.

"What's up, Polo?"

"… A message from Mr. Opoulos… He lured the FBI to Italy next… They still believe anything he says, my lady." He reported.

"Excellent. What about the CIA and the others?"

"Discussing with each other about who finds us first."

"Good, good! That means we needn't worry about them getting in our way… That's their real nature… Envious of each other! Hah!"

"Indeed. In the world of wet-works and espionage… No – one trusts each other…"

"Tee, heh, heh. They had it coming."

"Indeed."

"By the way! Polo! Find me a Mongolian ice-cream!"

"There is no such thing, my lady…!" Izono groaned.

"Pity."

"Yes, my lady…!" He sighed.

"You can leave. And check out _Playboy_!"

"M-my lady! I…!" He protested.

"It's a joke, man!"

"As you order, my lady…!" He resignedly muttered.

Twilight was rolling his eyes in the meanwhile and inwardly sighing as if he was getting tired of the whole deal as well.

"And I can guess something. Mr. Smiles will divorce Ms. Grins!"

"HUH? I fail to see the point, ma'am."

"There's none."

"Then why…?"

"It's a joke, man." She laughed.

She pulled his right ear and Twilight grumbled something under his breath but said nothing: she let go and giggled.

"Beware! Mike will beat Platinum in the madness duel!"

"M-madness duel…? Please." He found it absurd.

"Maybe we need to bring them back here to see them yell at each other, no?"

"I don't think Mr. Opoulos would approve…"

"Of course I don't intend to! I was kidding, man!"

"Excuse me."

"Tee, heh, heh. Oh well. I'll leave you to work out the details. I'm going for a stroll. See ya. And beware of rolling drum-cans!"

Twilight merely sighed in defeat as Anaya left the room: she walked down a corridor and ended up in a control room having a radar (currently inactive) and radio equipment: a large viewing window allowed one to see the whole central shaft: there was a round large hatch at the very top which was currently closed: Anaya looked out and spotted Cloud Man and Swallow Man arguing in Platform 2: she interacted with the controls and the speakers relayed their discussion.

"You go saying I'm a useless idiot!" Cloud Man was grumbling.

"Hah! You go saying I'm slower than an Albatross!"

"You half-a-duck moron!"

"You drunkard-loving moron!"

"Say it again!" Both yelled to each other.

"Half-a-duck moron!"

"Drunkard-loving moron!"

"STOP!" Freeze Man ran in, totally annoyed.

"Yikes!"

"Go patrol! Now! Before I turn you into mindless puppets!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

Both dematerialized and Freeze Man snarled something: Anaya merely giggled under her breath and was amused.

"Maybe Marvel's "Civil War" storyline has influence them!" She muttered aloud.

"I'm so tempted to go and…!" Freeze Man was grumbling to himself.

"Tee, heh, heh. Boil your CPU a bit, Freezin' Man." She joked.

"Grah! I'm going to speak with Twilight – sama! This can't keep on anymore! By my might! I prefer the Cut Man Brothers to those, even!"

 _The Cut Man Bros, eh? Who'll create Super Cut Man Bros. and beat Super Mario Bros! Nyah, hah, hah. Just you wait, Vadous… Nyah, hah, hah, hah!_


	9. Chapter 9: Old & new faces

**Chapter 9: Old & new faces**

11:21 AM (Japan Time), Thursday January the 25th…

"… Bone Stalker!"

"Woody Tower!"

"Water Tower!"

"Do it, Skull Man. Put those souls to rest."

"Oi, Miyuki… Don't creep me out."

"You 2! Focus! By beef and might and salmon! This must be a ploy by the Beef Market!"

"Oh come on. Masa – san. Be serious! Now's not the time to go by our Net Agents alter-egos. They've come to MY store!"

"Your flowers' aromas arose theses souls…"

"Miyuki… Quit it with the occult stuff, will you?"

"Saloma has a point, Miyuki. You're not contributing to improving the mood, you know?"

"I apologize. I don't feel like being enthusiastic."

"Lovely, just lovely!"

Skull Man, Wood Man and Shark Man were fighting off a Virus invasion in Saloma's store: Miyuki could only talk about creepy stuff and Masa began to say nonsense but Saloma got annoyed and told him to stop: Miyuki kept it at and Masa scolded her yet her tone didn't change which made Saloma get further annoyed.

"As if that attack this morning at 3AM into a wind power plant wasn't enough… They filled the walls with sprayed Alphabet letters there and there and we're still pending to make out a word that makes sense from those…!" Saloma fumed.

"Vengeful souls haunt us…"

"Miyuki…!" Masa complained.

"I apologize yet it feels like it. Maybe I am too dense today. Guess a storm's coming." She dully muttered.

"Sheesh." Skull Man complained.

"Kogarashi!"

"Fin Cutter!"

Skull Man, Wood Man and Shark Man continued to fight off the Viruses and they suddenly yielded to Heel Navis brandishing clubs and maces, stones, tree branches and other crappy weapons.

"Ura~h!" They yelled.

"Bone Stalker!"

"Woody Tower!"

"Aqua Tower!"

"Mwah, hah, hah! G, O, A, L, B, L, I, D, W, N, S!" Cloud Man's voice suddenly recited a string of letters.

"Sheesh. Those are the letters found on the site of the attack!" Saloma complained.

"Can you figure 'em out? Or do we invoke _baaroo – sama_?"

"Who?" Everyone asked.

"Ask Nico Nico Douga!"

"Sheesh."

"Beware! It's the Grim Reaper! Someone will die today!"

"E~H?" They all gasped.

"Or not."

"What the." They all complained.

"The Synchro Hexagon Brothers! Number! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! We lack one! Bah! He'll eventually return." He laughed.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Masa complained.

"Beware, Commander Beef! Higure Yamitarou is about to bring out "it"!"

"Don't tell me that…!" He gasped.

"If you don't hurry then…" He teased.

"Calm down! It's a trap!" Saloma fumed.

"Spurred by envy and lust…" Miyuki dully added.

"E~H?" Masa gasped.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah." Cloud Man laughed.

"Show yourself." Wood Man challenged.

"I'll show your number one fan: Ms. Wooden Arms!"

"HUH? What nonsense." He wasn't impressed.

"Mwah, hah, hah. So? Did any of you decipher it?"

"And what if we did?" Saloma shot back.

"Good question. Then maybe they'll hire you to crack the Enigma 666."

"Enigma 666? Oh come on. That your best shot?"

"Far for from it! I'm just getting started…"

"Oh crap."

"Higure…! Can't be that…!" Masa was muttering.

"FOCUS!" Saloma snapped.

"Huh! Y-yeah!"

"Beware! The tuna's going to be dethroned by the salmon!"

"Devil! Gotta procure some salmon!"

"And you believe him?"

"Eh? Huh! Now that you mention it… Thought it was someone out there in the street…"

"FOCUS!" She insisted.

"Tsunami!"

"Ugoah!"

"Thought as much: you were close by!"

"By Haddock! A billion blistering barnacles!"

"Stop saying nonsense! Fight!"

Shark Man's attack impacted upon Cloud Man (who'd been invisible and hovering high in the air) and he dropped into the ground: he calmly stood up and looked at the 3 of them.

"My bad! But my orders don't include that."

"Hmpf."

"So? How much bribes did you pay to be granted more screen-time?"

"Wha~t?" They all complained.

"Beware! Higure's about to do it!"

"Ah no! I was first!"

"Wait…! Oh crap. He ran out." Saloma sighed.

"Envy and paranoia haunt our minds…"

"Oh. Be quiet." Saloma complained.

"Tee, heh, heh." Anaya's voice rang out.

"You're Anaya. I remember you from last summer." Saloma fumed.

"Sure thing. So? Did that speedy man and you…?"

"NO!" She snapped.

"Pity."

"Don't make fun of that person! He's unrelated!"

"He got in our way once. I remember my enemies!" She snickered.

"That was over 2 and a half years ago!" She protested.

"Like I care!" She sneered back.

"A woman deluded by the call of a demoness…" Miyuki muttered.

"Deluded? More like inspired!" Anaya countered.

"A weak one…"

"WEAK? ME? WEAK?" She was pissed off.

"Arrogance and lust rule your flesh and mind…"

"HMPF! Like I care!"

"Bone Stalker!"

"Woody Tower!"

"Mega Cannon!"

"Heh, heh, heh. I'm faster than an F-1 car!"

The Navis were trying to fight Cloud Man but he merely dodged and wasn't fighting back to begin with.

"Hmpf. One day… You will be my preys… Like other women… And I will have my own harem of slaves…" Anaya threatened.

"You will try but will fail."

"Hah! That remains to be seen. _Wait and see_! She who dares wins!"

"A sinner soul shall be defeated by their own creations."

"KI~H!" She hissed.

"Not so confident anymore, Anaya?" Saloma taunted.

"HGTKSKBDBGKBKNOBLG!" She hissed something undecipherable.

"Uh-oh." Cloud Man grimly muttered.

"Pull out, Cloud Man! Now!" She ordered.

"R-roger, ma'am! Have at ya!"

Cloud Man escaped and the 3 Navis sighed in relief: there was a groan and some steps close by.

"That Higure…! Attacked me…! Thought my Beef Punch was enough to beat that skinny guy but could actually fight back…!" Masa groaned.

"Will you stop fighting over Mariko – sensei? Do you want to earn her sister's anger as well?" Saloma scolded.

"Souls deluded by lust…" Miyuki muttered.

"Go back to your store before I get ANNOYED FOR REAL!"

"Fine."

"Just you wait, Higure! I'll have my payback!"

 _Oh come on! Why can't they behave like adults? Sheesh!_

19:33 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… Man. Until a couple weeks ago I couldn't have believed such a world and such things existed, cousin!"

"Heh, heh. I knew you had the potential. And the looks. Cody."

"Sure… Man! It feels SO good…!"

"Heh, heh. This is our little secret, Cody! Nobody else knows."

"Of course, Cousin Philip! Nobody would imagine it to begin with."

"This is one of the best things a real guy can experience. You're already 11, man. You're no longer a lil kid! Now you're a real guy."

"I like the sound of that!"

Philip was having sex with a young guy in a brick-made underground room lit by candles: S&M stuff could be seen there and there including a wooden horse with two built-in vibrators, a crimson red wood cross, a collection of whips and ropes, chains and cuffs, blindfolds, ball-gags, leather masks, candles and lighters, clothes pegs, metallic cups, rings with small weights attached to them and so on.

This young guy, named Cody, could be on his early teens and about a meter and fifty tall.

He had blonde hair but his eyes were hidden by a thick black wool blindfold.

He was totally naked and his body was tied with crimson ropes in the "turtle shell bondage": his arms were placed horizontally and kept immobile with tightly tied rope.

Both were standing and Philip (wearing nothing) was pumping his cock into his ass: both were chatting in the meanwhile.

"You looked pretty bored as of late… Like TV and games weren't enough for you… So you asked me if I knew some other way to have fun… And I brought you here… It's a shut-down club so no-one gets in the way. Its backdoor is quite well hidden and hard to spot… And I'm the only one who has the key. When the cops raided the place they though there was only the front door… They sealed the entranced with bricks along with the windows but since they didn't know about this backdoor…"

"We can get in and out without being seen!" Cody grinned.

"Yeah. I also, as of late, felt like I lacked something… I'd experienced a lot being a masochist but… I wanted to know what it meant to be in control, to be the sadist… And you turned out to be the perfect type for me to try that out."

"But I'm amazed… You've been leading a secret life without Aunt Mathilda figuring it out…"

"Heh! Nobody could imagine it, anyway."

"I think I'm about to let it out!"

"Let it out! Heh!"

Cody let it out and so did Philip: Cody panted and Philip calmly took out his cock and let him sit down on a nearby chair to rest: Philip then began to check the stuff as if trying to decide their next game.

"Hmmm… Maybe it's too early…" He muttered as he looked at the wooden horse.

"What is?" Cody asked, still panting.

"Take it easy. Nothing. An idea but I thought it might too intense for you as of yet. Maybe in a few days' time."

"OK…"

"I'm going to have you try out something else… Wait a min. I need to find where they are at… Ah! Here they are!"

He picked a couple of wooden clothes pegs from a basket and clipped them to Cody's nipples: he yelped and his cock got hard again: he blushed and Philip chuckled.

"Man! Cody. It'd seem you're easily become a real masochist. Your cock suddenly hardened again."

"It itches a bit but…! It feels good as well…!" Cody muttered.

"Yeah. Guess that's what you experience on the first time. In gay S&M the point is to use all sensible points of the body… That includes those, of course…"

"If you play with these then you get hard too?"

"Of course."

"Man! I always wondered what they were for but nobody would tell me: they said it was there and that was it."

"Well. It's a form of stimulation… You need to be in the mood as well… By the "mood" I mean you gotta be imaging having sex…"

"Ah! I see…"

"You OK? Maybe I was too intense before?"

"N-no… It's just that… I felt like I let out of a lot of energy before…" Cody explained.

"Hmmm… Happens from time to time, yeah. You're building up emotions and all and you vent them off…" He rubbed his chin.

"Guess that's it… I still haven't vented off that boredom I'd been building up… But once I do, then… I guess I'll get amused by the TV and the games again…"

"That's the spirit."

"By the way, Cousin Philip… I recently played _Pokémon XD_ and finished the main story but…"

"But?"

"I heard a rumor… That the villain said "Die!" and it was changed…"

"It's true. Cloud Man showed it to me. It was clearly written in the Japanese script… "Die!"… Guess it was allowed because it was a spin-off game and they wanted to add to the sinister setting…"

"Whoa. So it was true… By the way: the new _Heart Gold Version_ is about to come out into stores… Is it worth it?"

"Oh, it was fun. I played a Japanese copy with Cloud Man as my translator… But make your choices, Cody! Don't let me influence your choices…" Philip replied.

"OK… I'll think about it."

"Now… Let's try another thing."

"What next?" He eagerly asked.

"This!"

He drew a dildo and turned it on to start rubbing it against the lower edge of his right nipple: Cody let out a little pitched moan and Philip began to spin it around his right nipple before doing the same for the left nipple as well: Cody's cock began to get harder.

"Feels… good…! Slow…! But good…!" He muttered.

"Doesn't it? Heh, heh, heh. But wait… Hop!"

"Wha! Whoa!"

Philip suddenly stopped doing that and picked a thin and short string of rope which he tied on the base of Cody's cock to further harden it: Cody gasped.

"It's gotten harder but…! I can't let it out!"

"No. Because I closed the way out. This is also the point of gay S&M. To deny the masochist of the right to cum. To force them to lower their head in front of you, to humiliate themselves and to be go to the sadist to let them cum." Philip explained.

"I see…!"

"But since I'm not intending to be cruel with you then I'll undo it now: it was just a little demonstration."

"OK… I'm fine with that…"

"Get ready… I'm going to tease you and let you cum at the same time: it'll be pretty intense!"

Cody nervously gulped and Philip placed the dildo's tip on the head of his cock: Cody began to moan before the ropes keeping his cock hard got loosened: Philip grabbed it and aimed it at Cody's body so that his body got stained with the bursts that came out: Cody let out a prolonged moan and hung his head down: he began to pant while Philip stood up and picked some of the cum with his fingers to check it out.

"Not bad. As usual." He muttered.

"T-the world's gone white… I feel numb… Too good to be true…"

"Welcome to the white world." Philip grinned.

"White world… Huh-uh…"

"Take your time. It's overwhelming. And I don't want to push it so we'll leave it at this for today. I've got free time tomorrow too so I'll come pick you up… Remember: behave like nothing had changed when at school, Cody…" Philip instructed.

"S-sure… No problem… My head's reeling… Numbness… Good… Too good to be true… I'm floating…"

Philip took out Cody's blindfold and he blinked several times: his eyes irises were blue: he looked absent or distracted.

 _Heh, heh. This is fun. And Cody enjoys it too. Master doesn't need to know. It's a family thing. And it doesn't interfere with Neo Gospel's operations: I haven't told Cody anything that isn't publically know, anyway. Once I get back to the base I should continue with the special training. Master said that the operation will take part in the weekend but I still don't know the day, time or place. For safety reasons, obviously enough. I guess Freeze Man's the only one apart from the 4 top brass that knows it._

"Huff, huff… Guess I'm back on the real world…"

"Good. I'll untie you."

Philip undid the ropes and Cody calmly stood up while rubbing his wrists: he frowned and seemed to think of something: he looked back at his body but there were no eye-catching traces left.

"I made sure not to tight them too much either… We don't want your classmates to see those when in the PE change-room… Help me cleanse and we'll leave."

Both dressed up again: Philip with a sleeveless white shirt, white boxers, shorts, and sandals while Cody with a blue T-shirt having the London Underground logo, black briefs, shorts and sandals before picking up his backpack: they cleansed up and then Philip opened a disguised door: they climbed up the stairs into the street and exited through another disguised door.

"Let's go to a café and I'll help you with the homework"

 _Heh, heh. This is life, man. I'm looking forward to the operation this weekend… It'll sure be very thrilling! Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh!_

10:20 AM (Iceland Time)…

"… How did the training go?"

"Ah! Dr. Spimer, sir. It went well."

"I wouldn't have thought I'd be riding in one of these things."

"Who would, Justin?"

"Got a point, George."

" _Otaku_ boys will be _otaku_ boys."

"Miss Jasmine… I think that comment was unnecessary."

"I am sorry, sir!"

A man stepped into a metallic room somewhere that looked like a hanger and had some tall objects covered in black covers: 3 teens (1 girl and 2 guys) were standing there.

The man, Spimer, looked on his late twenties or early thirties: he could be over a meter and eighty tall too.

His hair was combed in a neat manner and it was colored in an orange-like coloring while his eyes' irises were blue.

He had reading glasses on.

The man currently wore a white lab coat over a shirt, brown pants and shoes.

"Good, gentlemen. Well then… What about you, Miss Jasmine?"

"I did pretty well."

Jasmine, the girl, was on her late teens or early 20s.

She could be over a meter and eighty tall and had short black hair.

She wore a black long-sleeved t-shirt along with black jeans, fingerless black gloves and black sneakers.

She also sported a pair of sunglasses over her eyes.

She also wore a utility belt with two knife cases and two gun pouches.

"George?"

"Yes, sir. It took some effort at first but now I'm more used to the controls of this."

George had blonde hair.

He wore the same equipment as Jasmine and could one or two inches taller than her.

"And you, Justin?"

"I think that there's a risk of the machineguns overheating if used for more than 5 minutes."

Justin had green tinted-hair and was more or less pair on height with George.

"I see." Spimer rubbed his chin and looked pensive.

"Ah! But if you switch to the missiles for a minute or two then I think the machineguns have time to cool down."

"Then there's no need to improve those."

"No, sir."

"Good. But they'll need some more test driving. I've got the hunch that we'll need these pretty soon." He glanced at the covered machines and looked serious.

"What about your vehicle, sir?"

"It'll come in handy once the modifications are over… That'll make it harder to defeat as well…"

"Yet… Shouldn't there be some of the members guarding the laboratory, sir?" Jasmine asked.

"Don't worry. I've got it covered." He looked amused.

"I see, sir."

"You can go back. I've got to speak with the mechanic."

"Roger, sir."

"Drop by the bar and have some water. And then I suggest you have a shower to take off the sweat. These things' cockpit is heated but maybe it's too heated… Didn't you get that feeling?"

"I did get the feeling, true. Since it's a small closed space… Maybe we should take out the onboard heating and put on proper winter clothing instead?" Jasmine suggested.

"Hmmm…" Spimer seemed to be reluctant.

"Or else… Have a small hatch to vent off some of the heat for a few seconds." Justin suggested next.

"It depends on the weather… I'm weary of doing that now, in January… If it was July or August then…"

"There's not much space to stuff radiators either." George reminded the other two.

"I'm afraid you'll have to bear with it… Unless we redesigned it to have a slightly bigger cockpit… Maybe 10-15 cm wider… That could help give more space… Or… We reduce the heating system to half of what it is: I think it should suffice nevertheless…" Spimer began to suggest but got another idea along the way.

"Yes. I think that's the fastest and easier solution." Jasmine nodded in agreement.

"Good. I'll instruct the mechanics."

"Roger, sir."

"You may go."

The trio left through a side-door while Spimer spotted a pair of mechanics standing next to a desk and going over some schematics.

"Gentlemen."

"Dr. Spimer, sir."

"Mr. Burton. Can you take care of reducing the assault units' heating to half? We've tested them and we have excessive heating."

"Thought as much… So I assembled them in a manner than can be easily removed… We could place a coat or something like that in the empty space in case the outer casing was damaged." Burton suggested.

"Excellent!" Spimer was satisfied.

"Regarding the changes to your vehicle, Doctor…"

"How are they like?"

"95% completed… All that's left is the EM barrier device… And the shielding of Engine 4… I guess we'll have them by tomorrow… That should be all, no, Burton?"

"Yeah, Jameson."

"Excellent. I leave it on you gentlemen's hands. But please don't overwork either. Take as many breaks as necessary: I acknowledge that it's a tiring job."

"Thank you, sir."

"If you feel tired, I suggest the bar's green tea. It's one to make one relax and shake off stress."

"True. I've had it other times at the suggestion of Armenz…"

"Is that so? Good. Lately I thought orange juice was good for that. Or so Ms. Jarena said… Guess she meant the Vitamin C."

"Surely."

"Good. I shall take my leave. _Au revoir_."

"Good morning, sir!"

Spimer exited the hanger through the right door and crossed a metallic corridor with fluorescent lights: a small LCD screen displayed the day, time, weather, temperature and wind speed.

"Hum, hum. 3 Celsius. 60 km/h of winds. Cloudy." He read aloud without being too surprised.

He walked to the end of the corridor and emerged into a small hall from which some corridors branched: they had plaques set on one of the walls with directions: he followed the central corridor.

 _This is a set of domes linked between them. There are 9 nines domes in total yet the hanger is a separate building… And all of this is set atop a large ice shelf. It's big and large enough to be stable for years. I have my research lab which I share with another scientist here. Other domes include dorms, a bar, several shooting range rooms… And there's also a dome that controls the radars… It took time and effort._

He stepped into a bar: there were some other staff there including the earlier agents.

"Ah! Doctor, sir. The usual?" The bartender asked.

"Of course."

"Yes, sir. A glass of non-alcohol beer."

"Good."

Spimer sat down on one of the tables and discreetly glanced at a TV that was picking up the CNN broadcast.

 _We're an organization named Cypher… We have no real purpose: we're a gathering of people who felt like they couldn't properly fit into the normal society so we built our own one here… Supply planes bring supplies… And there are a lot of nationalities here… Including 3 former women officers who felt discriminated in the forces they served at… Their skills are appreciated here and everyone here knows their place._

"Well, well! If it isn't my precious disciple and the bad boys."

"Captain Troniat, ma'am."

A woman walked up to the trio's table.

The woman named Troniat seemed to be about a meter and eighty tall and she could be past her mid-20s or close to her 30s.

She had platinum blonde hair which she'd collected into a ponytail and brown eye irises.

She sported a brown shirt with long sleeves, a brown leather belt, jeans and black heeled shoes.

"You know the drill, my dear. Tease 'em."

"Truly, ma'am."

"That's all. See you, my dear. Hoh, hoh, hoh."

She walked away while Justin and George sighed and seemed to roll their eyes under the sunglasses: Spimer was far from amused as well.

 _I can foresee it… This must be the meaning… Hmpf… They'll underestimate us indeed… Come… We'll be ready to give you a warm "welcome"…!_


	10. Chapter 10: Into the blizzard

**Chapter 10: Into the blizzard**

05:55 AM (Iceland Time), Saturday January the 27th…

"… Do you copy, Bapgei? Are you in position?"

"I am, Master."

"The weather shield is working?"

"Perfectly."

"Good. Remember your orders: you infiltrate the lab during the distraction we'll cause. If needed stun anyone you find inside. Then use the terminal I gave you to copy their info…"

"Roger that."

"Start moving and wait for my signal once you reach the duct."

"Understood."

"Alright. You guys. Get ready: that combat jet isn't going to be as easy to take down as a Harrier 2."

"Understood, Twilight – sama. Did you get it? Cloud Man and Swallow Man!"

"Y-yes, sir! Understood!"

"Dark Generator is still forbidden. No trump card either. And don't remove the limiters. It's possible that we'll be fighting normal humans and our purpose isn't to damage or kill them. Same to you, Yamato Man! And! Cosmo Man! No "Cosmo Gate" either!"

"Acknowledged, sir."

Twilight had changed to a Navi-like appearance consisting of a helmet with a mouth guard activated, his chest emblem, consisting on two shades of black and white split by a horizontal grey line.

His shoulder pads were shaped as two split halves of a diamond, navy blue color save for the forearms and his boots, colored purple.

Lastly, he had a black smooth cape hung from the back of his shoulders.

He and his men were standing in the middle of a blizzard and looking towards a set of domes some tens of meters ahead.

They were visible thanks to their beacons and the spotlights scanning the perimeter: a track for planes to land and take off was also visible beginning at the hanger and the sides had beacons as well: Twilight was talking with Bapgei over the radio while Freeze Man made sure to remind his men how to behave.

"Zoan Gate Man is backup." Twilight reminded Freeze Man.

"Acknowledged."

"Let's go and…! Huh?"

Some spotlights built atop the hanger suddenly turned on and focused on them: they had to shield their sight since they were too bright: the hanger door opened and a vehicle rolled out.

"So you've come, Twilight. Just as I expected."

"What!"

The vehicle was a highly modified combat jet colored back and having retractable wings with two engines on each one: it had an open compartment on the front with a mounter machinegun and two sets of double grenade launcher tubes to the sides of the machinegun.

What stood out the most was that it had no viewing window and there didn't seem to be a door to enter or exit it.

"I did some modifications to my Mega Hurricane taking you and your men into account."

"How did you know we'd come here?" Twilight gasped.

"You're the vengeful type. I knew that, once Mr. Vadous told you we were the ones who uncovered Bapgei's identity, you'd come have your retribution. I thought you'd so after you attacked his HQ to rescue Bapgei but you didn't. But that gave me further time to prepare. And besides… I figured out the word left behind by your men… "Global Winds"… The Arctic is one of the points where most of the global winds generate: it meant us." Spimer exposed.

"I did tell IQ – sama I was afraid the name was a tell-it-all but Her Grace wouldn't change it…!" He grumbled.

"Thought as much. Not even you would make a name so obvious."

"Whatever. I just need an EM pulse to fry you out!"

"Be my guest. And in the meanwhile… My excellent 3 agents will take care of you men… Bring them out!"

AT-ST walkers from the _Star Wars_ movies walked outside of the hanger next: the shutter descended and then the Mega Hurricane opened fire.

"Evasion course!" Twilight ordered.

He tried to use Area Steal but part of his body began to break down and distort into raw polygons: he gasped and stopped and so did the others, surprised: the machinegun rounds converged on Freeze Man's front armor and most of them bounced off yet others managed to get stuck there: the AT-ST walkers began to shoot grenades at the other members and they jumped to dodge: Twilight still looked puzzled.

"What was that? I felt like my body was unable to stay materialized and was being forced back into the Cyber World…" He muttered.

"… Anti-materialization jammers…! They interfere with the "Bestialize Factor" and if you try to get too close you get sent back to the Cyber World…!" Freeze Man realized.

"Damn it. They put up counter-measures!"

"And that means that… We can't intrude their base from the real world: only from the Cyber World…!"

"This will become another Waterloo, Twilight!"

"Sheesh! Eat this! EM Pulse!"

Twilight formed and shot an EM pulse at the "Mega Hurricane" but it was far from affected: the grenades hit the snow around Twilight and he tried to shield from the explosions: the other members were fighting the 3 AT-ST walkers but weren't faring better because they were being shot the grenades and they were being hit because they apparently could lock into them and follow their movements.

"I added special coating."

"Damn it."

"What do we do?" Freeze Man asked.

"Aim for the legs of those things!"

"Roger."

"But ignore the cockpit! Then strike from the Cyber World! I'll settle the score with this guy on my own!"

"Understood. Go!"

"Elec Storm!"

"Swallow Cutter!"

"Thousand Spear!"

"Ice Tower!"

The Darkloids tried to focus their attacks on the walkers' legs but a shield-shaped "Dimensional Area" formed and repelled all of their attacks: they gasped in disbelief.

"Shield-shaped Dimensional Area?" Freeze Man gasped.

"By all the…" Twilight gasped as well.

"I've been researching into these since some years ago. I only had to ask Dr. Wily for the schematics."

"Damn it! Old man Wily! I always forget him! It's turning annoying: that I forget about others!" Twilight grumbled.

"Looks like you're getting senile." Spimer taunted.

"SENILE! ME! I'M A DARKLOID!"

"Like I care. You're not real "Darkloids" per se. You use the title but you aren't."

"Sheesh."

"That your best, Twilight?"

"NO! I'm going to get serious! Special Skill time!"

"Hmpf. Bring it on."

"… _Drill a hole into the Universe… Through any direction, without exhaust, freely shift…_ _You light pillars of destruction that pierce through the world…_ Lazy Laser!"

Twilight suddenly chanted something before announcing an attack: he built up energy just as a wormhole with spinning bluish edges and blackish insides formed in front of him: he shot a powerful surge of yellow energy inside of it and vanished yet another wormhole formed just above the Mega Hurricane: it bounced off the armor while leaving a barely visible burn mark there and headed for the ground: but, before it could hit it, another wormhole formed behind the machine.

" _Merde alons_!"

Spimer violently made the machine accelerate across the track and lifted off to escape the laser heading for the rear: he quickly veered course and opened fire towards Twilight: he got hit several times and shattered revealing it was an ice sculpture: the real one suddenly appeared atop the machine and was trying to plunge a sword like the one his men had into the machine yet it easily broke into the attempt: Spimer accelerated and Twilight was tossed off the machine because he hadn't secured himself to begin with: he warped and landed on the ground.

" _Gathering afterglow, shining blades... Sparkle of light that announces the demise... Tear the horizon and return to nothingness..._ Demise Light Blades… AKA… Zero Blade!"

Twilight formed some purple-edge triangles with a green dot on their middle and they combined to give shape to a large blade that he held over his head: some openings formed and purple energy began to glow and shine from within it: he swung it forward and a stream of purple energy preceded by a sonic boom shot forward over their heads: he then shot forward and plunged his blades into the Mega Hurricane but they shattered as well.

"Damn it. This armor is something!" He cursed.

"Trouble, Twilight – sama! I sent Swallow Man to scout the Cyber World but… It's a mere 2 per 2 meters platform in the middle of a void! It's a totally isolated section… And the only one we can access! There are no other plug-in points… And we can't find the wi-fi routers… We tried the radar tower but couldn't access it either!" Freeze Man reported.

"Fuck. They predicted that as well."

"Blame yourself for trying to listen in using Zoan Gate Man."

"Grrr…!"

"Got some toys for you. Have this on for a change!"

A compartment opened on the top of the machine and a laser gun emerged: it quickly loaded up a blue laser and it shot for Twilight as he was about to do something else: the blow hit him on the chest and momentarily stunned him, pushing him back: he recovered but by then the gun had been stored inside of the armor again.

"I'll burn all to cinders!"

"I'm skeptical."

"Grrr! _Heat waves that actively burn like the Sun... Burning passion, undulating Inferno... Only ashes shall remain in Purgatory's flames..._ Sunshine Nova!"

Two endless pillars of flames formed behind each combatant thus limiting their fighting space: Twilight shot forward and Spimer merely made the machine (stationed in mid-air) tilt to the right: Twilight plunged into the pillar and some embers jumped off from the impact: he quickly emerged at a slightly higher height while surrounded by a fiery aura: he moved NW and plunged into the second pillar: some embers jumped off again: he finally stopped in mid-air between both pillars.

"Huh? What?"

He expanded his body and some fiery spheres began to come out while drawing patterns and acting in groups: they formed several curved lines with small gaps between each sphere and they kept on expanding: some flew towards the base but broke down into polygons before vanishing seconds away from contact.

"More, more AND MORE~!"

The patterns suddenly gave way to three streams that formed a "T" shape and now the way to dodge was to exploit the corners: the pattern changed yet again and now was two diagonal streams aiming SW and SE respectively so the middle was the safe spot: the pattern returned to the "T" shape and then to the diagonal shape and kept on cyclically shifting between each other: Spimer attacked with the machinegun and stunned Twilight to knock him off the air.

"Wasn't a threat either. They were barely some hundreds of degrees hot to begin with. This thing can resist up to tens of thousands of degrees."

"Sheesh. I won't give up so easily! I don't care if I'm recycling stuff: as long as it's enough to beat you! You can't possibly be harder to beat that that damned interloper!"

"Who knows? Figure out your powerlessness."

" _Mutually attracting magnetisms burst open… Desire it all wish it all… Deprive… Rise… Grand arms…_ Super Heavy Magnetic Exploding Star!"

"Hum. Let's see if this can beat the protective coating…"

Twilight formed a small purple sphere on his hands and then flung it at the middle of the air: it suddenly began to grow while trying to suck in everything around it: the walkers jumped away through a jet-pack on their back to avoid being sucked in: a ring-shaped wave formed on the edge and quickly shrank and vanished before reaching the center: it soon became about 3 meters tall to and shrank to about two thirds or more of its original size and imploded, with that energy hitting both and the walkers as well: some traces of smoke remained on the spot where the sphere had been at.

"All systems nominal. So despite the "magnetic" word in its name it was more like an attempt to recreate a star's death in a miniature scale… No damage done to the coating."

"Huff, huff… That didn't do it either? Freeze Man!"

"The walkers seem to work normally too… And the jammers too…"

"Hey! Speaking of which…! Bapgei! Report! Bapgei! Damned. It's jammed…! What's happened to Bapgei?" He demanded as he looked up to the machine.

"Don't worry! I knew you'd make him sneak into the lab dome so I sealed off through DAs all but one room where he'd end up at… And one of my "S" series robots is fighting him… While holding back, of course. More like having him run around in circles." Spimer chuckled.

"Damn it. Forgot about those things even though I saw one in action over a year ago!" Twilight growled.

"Eh… To be exacts, sir… You placed those files in folders but you haven't accessed them since then so… You haven't "forgotten"… Your files lack tags to link them to current thoughts, sir…" Freeze Man pointed out in a timid manner as if he feared Twilight would get annoyed.

"GRRR! Fine! It's just that it's easy to say "I've forgotten"…! I was originally of flesh and blood and could forget things!"

"R-roger, sir."

"One more! My pawns will take care of those: you try to find the jammers and…!" Twilight began to order.

"They're on the inside, sir."

"Shit. Though they were on the outside. So we can't destroy them. How about you try to attack the hanger?"

"It's also got jammers, sir. And the lab dome has a variant of those that's more powerful too…" Freeze Man trailed off.

"And these jammers mean that I can't contact IQ – sama either! Swallow Man's the fastest, no?"

"Indeed, sir."

"Send him running away on foot until he's outside of the jammer ring… He needs to update IQ – sama. We might need Her Grace's support. Risky but necessary. Her Grace and Mr. Secretary are the only ones who can come close to the domes. Let's take profit of that to intrude the lab and steal the stuff on it…!" He whispered.

"Roger, sir… Swallow Man, did you hear that?"

"Copy that… I'll pull a stun…"

Swallow Man jumped towards one of the walkers' cockpits but four grenades hit him: he groaned and collapsed on the floor face-down: the walker then focused on Yamato Man, striking the legs: Swallow Man rose and quickly ran off on foot without the others noticing: Twilight had formed Spark Bees to keep Spimer busy in the meanwhile too.

"… _The revolving reincarnation spins life... And crosses the irreversible curtain... You soul: return to the living world..._ Resurrection!" He announced.

Twilight began to build up purplish energy and then formed a column of energy that was of a pinkish shade: some small columns of white energy and sparkles formed within it as well and a shape began to form inside: the light ended and it turned out it was none other than Flash Man yet his eyes glowed in a crimson color: he jumped for the Mega Hurricane and landed atop it: began to try to open the laser hatch.

"Won't let you. Hah!"

Spimer accelerated towards the closest dome so Flash Man was unable to stay materialized and was forced into the Cyber World: Spimer then dove for Twilight and Freeze Man as they aimed Magma Cannon Battle Chips at him: they began to shoot a torrent of flames at the vehicle but had no effect: they ducked as the vehicle shot past them, performed a loop and stopped close by still in mid-air.

"EAT THIS!"

"What now?"

"Hmpf. _The hum of devouring flying insects resounds… Endless hunger's fangs… Devour and chew it all…_ Destiny Fang!"

Twilight jumped into the middle of the air and formed two small objects at both sides: they had a grayish body shaped like a mouth and were filled with many teeth: their top was yellow: a small sphere of energy formed atop Twilight and he began to throw what seemed to be a winged mass of energy at them: hordes of flies began to be swallowed up by the fangs and slowly grow in size: they quickly became almost 2 meters tall each and now they rather looked like discs having 2 circles of outer and inner teeth on their insides: they flew away left and right while Twilight himself turned invisible: Spimer gasped and ignited the jets to make the vehicle shot higher into the air.

"Hah!"

Both mouths clashed and met each other, spinning and apparently chewing yet they did nothing because their intended victim wasn't there anymore.

"Did you feel the FEAR?" Twilight laughed.

"That could've been dangerous." Spimer muttered.

"Mwah, hah, hah! Fear and terror!"

"Maybe you want me to summon The Fear from the Cobra Unit and teach you what real fear is about?" Spimer taunted back.

"Wha~t?"

"A rip for a rip!"

"Damn you~…"

"This is Lieutenant Marylitu. Anaya and Izono have appeared near the lab dome but we were patrolling the perimeter with walkers… They have Stringer missiles so we need to use chaff to avoid those…"

"Speaking of which… I see. Swallow Man isn't here. Must've run off to report to those 2… And Opoulos and Zoan Gate Man must be in the base ready to pull all of you out of here…"

"But these 2 are inside of the jamming field…"

"Swallow Man isn't. Must be looking on from afar using IR vision and deducing what's going on… Or maybe he's got an overhead camera as well high enough to be free of jamming…"

"Ah! That makes sense, sir."

"This is Morgan… That runt actually beheaded Unit S – 4. I'm going to teach him some lessons myself."

"Remember to hold back, Colonel."

"Of course. Hey! Runt! I'm your next foe! Dodge my right swing!"

"Grah! Gimme a break!" Bapgei groaned.

"A real war won't give you breaks! Fight until the other collapses! Your petty master didn't teach you this is a war!" Morgan firmly countered.

"GHIAKLGDNLSKNGLBK!" He growled something undecipherable.

"Why don't we let them hear?" Morgan suggested.

"Excellent suggestion. Twilight! Listen to this."

"What?"

"How about my left upper?"

"Gruh! This guy's way too fast!"

"Damned it. Bapgei's fighting that Morgan…!"

"Indeed. Ah. By the way. Those excellent ladies are taking care of your petty masters…" Spimer added.

"Heck. Those 3 ex-military…! We got read…! This is turning worse!"

"So? Got anything better in store?"

" _Annihilate the evil spirits that antagonize the world… Even if my hands are stained with sins… Send the sinful souls to God's presence…_ Lust Doppler!"

Twilight glowed and formed three ghostly pinkish _bunshin_ of himself that took positions above him and to his sides: they shot forward followed by Twilight: they all crashed upon the machine but didn't get to get any damage: he landed back on the ground.

" _Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death… Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death… Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death…_ Re –su – rre – c – tiO – N!" Twilight began to chant in a row to then oddly misspell "resurrection" as if he wasn't sure how it sounded or it was an attempt at pronouncing it.

Two columns of light formed and both Plant Man and Bowl Man (lifeless) formed there.

"Plant Weed!"

"Pin Missile!"

Neither attack managed to inflict a single scratch: one of the walkers turned from fighting Cloud Man and shot several grenades at both of those to delete them: Twilight shrugged and seemed to be up to something else.

" _Heaven is will, the Emperor's God-mind… Hunt the opposing fellow…_ Psycho Fusion!"

Spheres of purple energy having the emblem of the Darkloids drawn on them formed and fused to give way to a bigger purple sphere that produced a cross-shaped attack: they began to pop out around the Mega Hurricane: it shook a bit but didn't contribute to damaging it either.

"I've got something BIGGER! And more POWEFUL! Feeling SCARED?"

"Your ego?"

"SHEESH!"

"No good." Freeze Man sighed.

" _Godly Emperor that rules the Heavens… Heavenly Star Summoned from Beyond the Galaxy… This is Divine Punishment… Be destroyed, you fool…_ The One Come from Beyond the Rumbling Space!"

A gigantic mass of plasma, a miniature star, began to fall from the "sky" towards the Mega Hurricane while forming a layer of plasma around it: Spimer gasped.

"That could easily damage the integrity of the ice shelf…! I've got to stop it somehow… I know!"

He opened the laser gun and two extra wires plugged into the base: the gun's sound changed and a powerful green laser began to charge up: Spimer shot it at the sphere and hit the SW corner of it: the continuous attack began to slowly push it towards the right and away from the ice shelf towards the awaiting ocean over 30 meters below: once he made sure it'd fall there he turned his attention back to Twilight and the others: they were running away from the base.

"Wait! Don't chase. Radar tells me: they're dummies!"

"Too late! _The rolling thunderbolt is the guidance of beliefs… The roaring thunder boom is the proof of fate… The tearing thunder and lightning are the foundations of the Universe…_ Voltic Chain!"

Some gigantic chains suddenly began to pop out of nowhere and cross across the area in several directions forming a mess that trapped the walkers as well: Twilight put on a Dream Aura while the chains glowed with azure electricity: the walkers began to frizzle and suddenly stopped working altogether.

"Devil. But at least they lasted until now."

"Huff, huff…! Cloud Man! I gave you the data! Go bust the ones near the lab dome so that IQ – sama and Mr. Secretary can assist Bapgei!"

"Roger that!"

"Did you hear?" Spimer asked Marylitu.

"I copy, sir. Let's do what we can."

"Don't overdo it either."

"Roger that, sir."

"Almost done with you lowlifes… A couple of parting gifts… Soon… I'll become a GOD!"

"Oh yes? More fairy tales?"

"GRRRR! _Lightning that vibrates and rinses like the heavens… Smash all that you meet across your path._ Lightning Sphere!"

Twilight extended his right hand forward and built up some electricity there: four bluish/white spheres of electricity formed around him and quickly spun clockwise very close to the front of the machine: they didn't do anything either.

"And… _The sparkling thunder-wrapped holy blade… Azure lightning's outrage: pierce the enemy…_ Spark Calibur!"

A gigantic white mass of energy shaped like a blade formed and plunged into the front of the machine: some of the coating jumped off from the force of the attack: there was some frizzling and the frontal weapons stopped working.

"Hah…! So! Your damned machine wasn't invincible!"

"Well. I added this recently. And it's a coating that's another material altogether. It doesn't change that you couldn't penetrate an inch of the original material. And by the way! Your REX deployment gave me the idea for this alteration. REX works by using external sensors to allow the pilot to see what happens in the battlefield!"

"Damn it all."

"This is Cloud Man! I beat the walkers! Bapgei managed to get out through the way he'd come in but he's all exhausted… We're heading to extraction point Beta!" Cloud Man reported.

"Fine! The rest save Freeze Man! Head to Beta! Escort the VIPs! And watch your tongues!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"The runt ran away: he'd brought a rope ladder which he used to climb down from the vent… He's cut it to impede me from chasing." Morgan reported.

"You did excellent, Colonel. They're going to run like mice."

"MICE?" Twilight hissed.

"Mice that hide and shiver in fear of being discovered and forced to migrate… No?"

"Sheesh."

"Did you forget again that what's in Utah isn't that "Duo's Comet" but an exploration ship with no weapons onboard?"

"What? Oh damn it! Not again! I mixed up the tags!"

"No good." Freeze Man sighed.

"Where's your damned GUTS?" Twilight snapped at him.

"T-that's, eh, hum, well…" He began to blurt in a rush.

"I guess he never had those and wanted to play strong. Not surprising, coming from a creation by Dr. Wily…"

"Hmpf! Dr. Wily did create me but that's unrelated!"

"Let's run!"

Both ran away yet they suddenly slipped and hit the ground with their bottoms: they groaned and got up somehow to run away again: the walkers' top hatches opened and the 3 agents emerged having thick weather clothing on plus googles and scarfs.

"Are you alright?" Spimer asked.

He'd deployed the landing gear and a hatch formed to the left: it opened and tilted to become a staircase similar to a jet's entrance: Spimer, wearing aviator outfit (a brown leather helmet with black shades and a mask that had the mike on it, black leather coat and jeans and boots) jumped off to run towards them.

"We're alright. We quickly put these on." Jasmine replied.

"Hurry into the hanger. I'll have the "S" units retrieve these: go ahead and have something hot at the café too to regain body temperature. A hot chocolate would do." He instructed.

"Roger, sir. But I'm surprised at how blunt they battled." Justin muttered.

"They weren't ready for such opponents." Spimer replied.

"Roger, sir." George acknowledged.

The four of them rushed into the garage the shutter of which was slightly open: it quickly shut down and the heating system began to work: they were able to take off the winter clothing and sigh in relief.

"What about the officers?" Jasmine asked.

"There's an emergency exit on the rear of the dome: it's built as part of an airlock-like room to allow for a transition in temperature. They've surely come in by now."

"Indeed, sir. We're alright." Marylitu replied over the radio.

"Huff! That bitch sure was in the mood to insult me today." Troniat sighed in relief.

"You needn't tell me. And quoting Vincent Red hoping to drive us mad: almost got away with that!" A third woman complained.

"Now, now. Take it easy, Marshal Frendan." Morgan told them.

"Roger, Colonel." Frendan obeyed.

"Have some proper rest. I'll take care of the retrieval of those. Speaking of machines… We could lend some _Nibelung_ to Mr. Vadous and he'd distribute them. Let's turn their weapons into them!"

"I did have that plan but I forgot about it when I began to prepare for their incoming assault… Good. Let's do it. I'll finish tuning them up… And they'll be met with a nightmare."

Spimer took out the helmet and sighed in relief: he picked a handkerchief from the coat's pocket and wiped off his sweat.

"Well. I should contact Mr. Vadous and tell him what's happened… If he doesn't figure soon by hearing to the mikes in their hideout… Heh."

 _You suffered a real Waterloo, Twilight… Sink into humiliation forever!_


	11. Chapter 11: Come again

**Chapter 11: Come again**

01:11 AM (Chile Time), Sunday January the 28th…

"… It's here! I insist! A machine to become a GOD!"

"Yeah, yeah. How many times, Freeze Man?"

"18 in the last 7 minutes…"

"And that makes about 2 proclamations per minute…"

"Seeing how things ended up yesterday…"

"You needn't remind me! As if that robot wasn't enough that Morgan was as fast as light! He failed in purpose! And I could feel the strength on those arms from inches away!"

"GOD! I AM A GOD! LIKE IN ZENAY III!"

"What's that?"

"I don't know either. Something he did before he rebuilt me, I guess. During his travels through Time – Space…"

"He did mention that…"

"I'M A GOD!"

"Heck. Feels like a repeat of some months ago…"

"I warned him. Lady IQ warned him. But he wouldn't listen. Lady IQ is going to be VERY annoyed when we get back. Master Twilight has actually _disobeyed_ an order."

"And we stick along because he'll surely run into trouble and will need some assistance… Sheesh. What have I become, a babysitter?"

Twilight, Bapgei and Freeze Man were walking down a rock tunnel somewhere that had very dim illumination: Twilight seemed to be obsessed with the idea of becoming a god somehow while the other 2 were sighing and sounded totally defeated.

"That supercomputer of them must be the key to! Hence why that damned interloper destroyed the space-city on that other Universe! Just you wait…! I'll tear it open and find the key!"

"Does he mean that Slur Navi?" Bapgei asked Freeze Man in a whisper.

"True."

"That damned recreation…! If only I'd made it simpler…! Then it would be under my control! But no! Had to run away! With my backup! With Kanou Shade! To beyond my reach!"

"Are they really out of his reach?" Bapgei asked.

"Yes. Master sent a probe to check out things there and found that they'd been there for a few months before leaving for an unknown destination: now there's no way to find them."

"I see."

"Here it is!"

They entered a chamber that contained a large-sized black-colored hexagonal machine about two and a half meters tall: Twilight rushed for it and aimed his hands at it: "Sith Lightning" shot out from the fingers and impacted the machine thus making it hum and turn on.

"Show me your secrets!" He ordered.

"… Kawanishinoseguchi, Kinunobebashi, Takiyama, Uguisonomori, Tsuzumigataki, Tada, Hirano, Ichinotorii, Ueno, Yamashita, Sasabe, Kofudai, Tokiwadai, Myokenguchi." The computer suddenly began to recite while speeding up the voice.

"HUH? That's a train line! This thing's picked up garbage! What a piece of junk they have here!"

"Oh no. I inserted it at Omega's suggestion."

"That voice! YOU~!"

"Indeed. Me. Xon' Edos…"

Twilight had been baffled by what the computer announced but a man's voice rang out: his face contracted into hatred and he spun around while forming two light-sabers colored crimson to face a newcomer.

This newcomer, Xon' Edos, looked about a meter and eighty tall and bronze was the main color of his body with some white spots.

The drawing of a planet was engraved on his helmet's forehead.

His eyes' irises were purple and looked calm.

He had two triangular wings (currently folded) with grooves drawn on it and colored bronze.

These same grooves repeated on the rest of his body.

He didn't have any emblems on his chest or in the helmet's ear pads.

"I'll DESTROY YOU!"

"If you can, that is."

"You acolytes go broom! I'll blow this bastard up?"

"Acolytes?" Both groaned.

"Hra~h! Super Heavy Magnetic Exploding Star!"

Twilight formed the attack but Xon' Edos didn't even bother to move: he kept on hovering some inches over the ground and wasn't even pulled: the mass imploded and the shockwave hit Xon' Edos but he wasn't damaged: Twilight growled.

"Spark Calibur!"

He formed the blade and hit Xon' Edos yet he was unfazed and didn't get a single wound.

"You can't be made of alloys!" Twilight growled.

"My body structure is way different to you. Did you not see that when you recreated Slur?"

"I did have some samples but didn't keep them…! Else I'd beaten you a thousand times by now! By figuring out the weakness…!"

"Blame your own arrogance."

"Shut up! I'm in charge! Lightning Sphere!"

Twilight attacked again but only managed to leave some very thin and hard-to-see scratches: Twilight snickered and seemed to get cocky so he began to shoot a Super Vulcan next: Xon' Edos merely remained with the arms crossed and his face was immobile: Freeze Man had been looking on with what seemed to be suspicion and suddenly gasped.

"Stop, Twilight – sama! It's a trap! Muramasa!"

"What!"

"It would seem your men are smarter than you."

"GRRRR!"

"And he was right. Have this back, by all means! Muramasa Blade!"

He drew the Muramasa Blade and suddenly dashed across the air to swing it and open a noticeable wound on Twilight's body: he then spun and delivered a kick with the right leg to Twilight's jaw: he recoiled, momentarily stunned, and groaned: Freeze Man drew his blade and rushed for Xon' Edos while Bapgei shot his knives at him: Xon' Edos moved so fast that only a blur could be seen: the next second Freeze Man's blade had been sent flying across the air, the knives bounced off in many directions, and Bapgei had been tossed into the ground landing on his right side: Xon' Edos was out of sight.

"W-what the… Gah… My body hurts! I feel like something grabbed from the front and violently tossed me to the ground…! I don't understand what happened…! I only saw a blur…!"

"Me too…! My sword got hit and flung out of my hands and now it has fallen 3 meters away from me!" Freeze Man gasped.

"Grah… I'm dizzy…! My chest aches and burns…!" Twilight was clutching the wound.

"TWILIGHT!" Anaya yelled over the radio.

"Oh no!" He turned white.

"EXPLAIN YOURSELF! YOU DISOBEYED ME! ME, YOUR MASTER! ME, YOUR CREATOR! ME, YOUR SUPERIOR!"

"T-that is…!"

"ARE YOU A MORON LIKE GUTS MAN OR WHAT?"

"N-no, my lady…! But I…!"

"DID I SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HAVING TO BECOME A GOD?"

"N-no, my lady…! But…!"

"AND NOW YOU GOT YOUR ARSE KICKED! I CAN SEE THAT! I SENT A METTOOL TO CHECK ON YOU AND YOU FAILED AGAIN!" She continued.

"I can explain, my lady…!"

"No lame explanations!"

"Yes, my lady…!"

"And what proof do you have there's such data to begin with? Why would they? Their creation went berserk and blew up their planet: do you think they were stupid enough to create something like that again and risk destroying themselves again?"

"T-that is…"

"USE THE HEAD!"

"R-roger, my lady…!"

"PULL OUT! NOW! BEFORE YOU GET CAUGHT!"

"R-roger… Damn it, I'll be back… And destroy them!"

"If you can! Gorilla Man!" She fumed.

"Y-yes, my lady…!"

"And there'll be CONSEQUENCES! Namely! You're grounded for 24 hours and I'll give the orders to Freeze Man myself! You go play MGS or whatever you want but you won't be leaving the base in the next 24 hours! I'LL SEE TO IT!"

"As you wish…! I obey…!"

"Zoan Gate Man! Get 'em outta there!"

"Roger. Remote Gate!"

The Remote Gate formed and they walked into it (Bapgei on his feet while Freeze Man was supporting Twilight because he looked about to collapse anytime): it closed and vanished while Xon' Edos became visible: he looked to the right and Omega became visible as well.

"Good work, Xon' Edos."

"It was nothing. I barely had to do anything." He shrugged.

"Good. Did you finish moving all the data to your craft?"

"Indeed. There is nothing left here. Well then. Let us meet again."

"Sure thing. I'm going back to the HQ… But we can't lower the guard yet!"

19:29 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"… Huff. What a morning."

"… Zzztop."

"Huh? What? Who are you guys and what do you want?"

"You coming with uzzz."

"Why?"

"No quezztionzzz!"

"… That accent… Sharo…? I see, I see…"

"Attack!"

"Idiots."

Philip (in his usual civilian clothing) had been walking down a street when an accent voice rang out: he stopped and looked up since he'd been sighing and lost in thoughts: four men wearing janitor uniform had surrounded him and they looked both hostile and foreign: Philip narrowed his eyes and quickly realized what was going on: the men ran for him but he simply grabbed the right arm of one of them and swung him around to knock the other three before pushing him into the ground: some other pedestrians stopped, surprised.

"Kidnappers!" Philip yelled.

"Kidnappers! Someone call the police!"

"I'm going to beat these! I'm a boxing pro!" Another exclaimed.

"Damn it. We got zzzeen!" One groaned as he recovered.

"Zzzzcram!" Another ordered.

They ran off being chased by a couple of pedestrians: Philip took profit of the confusion to slip away through another alley and put some distance from the group: he sighed in relief.

"I don't think that Laika guy leaked my face in purpose… Someone there must've deduced he knew… Or maybe they hired a hacker to hack the file from the Net Police? Hmmm… I'd better report this."

He drew a PET and interacted with it.

"This is Freeze Man."

"Bapgei here. Got assaulted by Sharo agents…"

"What!"

"Shook them off and forced them to flee… We should try to figure out how they knew my face. Laika surely didn't tell them."

"Surely not. And most of the military believed THE man was having delusions and didn't take his order of finding where we were at seriously yet… Maybe some fool eager to a rise in rank…"

"Sounds like it."

"Maybe the Net Police is lax with security… Or someone inside is a double spy and managed to get a copy of the file…"

"That could be the case too. We'll have to hunt those down… I'll send some of the Legion 64 to check it out."

"Send some to the coordinates I'll give you too. Others related to me could be involved: I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to use hostages to force me to show up."

"Hum. This could get troublesome. Alright. I'll put energy into it: Zoan Gate Man! Handle the dispatches."

"Roger that."

"Good. Tell me ASAP if something else pops out…"

"Of course. I'm going to inform Lady IQ as well."

"Roger. Later."

"Stay on your toes."

"Of course. Over."

Philip pocketed the PET and rubbed his chin while looking rather annoyed: he grumbled under his breath and fumed.

 _I was going to meet with Cody and go have fun but… I'm not sure if we'd have fun with the mood I have right now… And with the tension I'm building up… I could end up trying to vent off that annoyance into Cody and that won't do. Maybe I should have a drink along the way…!_

Sighing, he resumed walking and entered a café: he sat on a stool in front of the counter and had a quickly glance around.

"A Coca-Cola." He ordered.

"Right away." The bartender replied.

The bartender brought a glass bottle which he opened and poured the drink into a glass with ice cubes and a slice of lemon: Philip took out his wallet and paid the drink before beginning to drink it up: he stopped and glanced at a nearby TV transmitting a baseball match in live.

 _They must've deduced by digging up my connections that I'd show up around the area… Let's hope Cody and my aunts don't get involved into this… If they want to beat the crap outta the old man then I couldn't care less… That drunkard doesn't know anything and only cares about drinking more and more… Hmpf…_

He finished the drink and exited the café to resume his walk: he reached a house and rang the doorbell: there were some rushed footsteps and Cody opened the door with a grin.

"You came!"

"Sorry for the wait. Had to finish pending work… Is Aunt at home?"

"No. Mom went to the supermarket. And she asks for the groceries to be delivered so she doesn't need me to help her with the bags either. Can we go?" Cody shrugged.

"Sure. Leave a message before."

"OK!"

Cody picked a notepad from atop the hall's drawer set and wrote a message: they both left and Cody locked with his keys before they began to walk down the street.

"So… Today…?" Cody eagerly asked.

"Today… What?"

"Can I try it?"

"The horse…? Are you sure about it? It's very extreme at first…"

"I know you care for me, Cousin, but…"

"Fine. But I warned you."

"I know."

The two of them silently reached the alley where the backdoors was at: Philip opened it and both entered: he made sure to lock it from the inside before they descended into the basement: Philip used the PET to scan the surroundings but found nothing: it beeped but it was an incoming call so he stepped away to listen to it as Cody began to undress.

"This is Freeze Man… According to the scouts' reports… Nothing out of place has happened… Ah, true… Those men have been caught trying to escape with a Jeep… They're being interrogated."

"Good. I've got some business of my own to handle so I won't be able to answer the calls for a couple hours. Send me emails and I'll check them out…"

"Alright. Lady IQ warns that you must be on your toes the whole time if you want to avoid those."

"OK."

"Over."

Philip left the PET atop a chair close by and picked the crimson rope from a hook in the wall: he calmly tied up Cody and placed the blindfold on him: he then attached a hook to the ropes from behind and pulled a chain to lift him and suspend him over the wooden horse.

"Get ready!"

Cody gulped and Philip let go of the chain to make him fall straight into the two vibrators: Cody groaned and gasped as they turned on and began to spin clockwise and anti-clockwise: Philip locked restrains on Cody's ankles as he tried to lift his body but slipped back since the vibrators were covered in a lubricant: Cody groaned and his cock got hard: Philip chuckled and clipped the clothes pegs on his nipples to excite him further: his moans became louder.

"Intense…!"

"Told you."

"Too intense… Too good… Man!"

"Heh, heh! I told you it'd be."

"You were right…! This feeling…! Two of these in my ass…! Spinning…! I try to stand up and slide back… And they get deeper in…!" He muttered between moans.

"Alright. Next is…!"

He lowered the horse because the legs were designed to be retractable until Cody's head was at his waist's height: he grabbed Cody's head from behind and had him take his cock into the mouth: he set the pace and Cody followed him as Philip toyed with the left nipple's clothes peg: he inwardly chuckled.

 _Heh. Cody's getting used… He'll do an excellent masochist… Yeah… I think I'll switch roles for a season… He'll be my handsome slave… In terms of the game, of course. I don't intend to really enslave him! I'll play with him and he'll want more of it… This will do to kill the boredom!_

He released inside of Cody's mouth and pulled his cock away: Cody panted and some stuff dripped down his jaw into the horse: Cody suddenly gasped and released so he stained his lower body: he hung his head down.

"Gone to the white world, Cody? Heh, heh. Let's tease you a bit more."

He picked a ping-pong racket and smacked the right buttock with it: Cody groaned and snapped out of it: Philip hit the left buttock next and began to alternate between one and the other to make Cody groan and moan more and more: he moved to the front and began to smack his balls from the front and the sides too to get his cock hard again: Cody released again and let out a long moan.

"Did you like the feeling of the ping-pong racket?"

"Intense…! It aches and feels good at the same time…!"

"Heh, heh. That means you've got what it takes, Cody!"

"I've got what it takes? Great!"

"We're going to have plenty of fun today… I'm going to be intense!"

"Man! I look forward to it…! I want more pleasure…! More of it!"

 _I'll deliver it to you right now, Cody… Heh. I've found a new goal in life…!_

21:31 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Warning. 5 enemy signatures detected."

"5? Not again."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Gotta be 'em… The Pentagon Bros.!"

"Just go and deal with them. Will you?"

"Delighted, Bloody~ Shadowy!"

"Sheesh. No need for nicknames!"

Blood Shadow and Sigma had been looking at a film while sitting inside of the Hikari house PC when a warning rang out: Blood Shadow groaned, annoyed, while Sigma chuckled and stood up: he ran down the area and crossed over 3 firewalls before exiting outside: he found the Cut Man Brothers standing there and wearing cloaks and straw hats while yielding _katana_ : they seemed to want to pretend they were _samurai_.

"Mwah, hah, hah. The Pentagon Samurai?"

"Tell Rock Man to come out!" Jiiro ordered.

"Else… We're going to get in!" The other four (Saburo, Shiro, Goro and Rokuro) added.

"Get in? How? There are several firewalls, see!"

"S-several? There wasn't just one?"

"Of course not. Security has been improved lot in recent years. Have ya been livin' in the moon?"

"N-no! We've been training! To have our revenge!"

"Huff. You're stubborn. Your precious bro was trying to blow up a dam and kill milions of people! MILIONS OF IRREPLACABLE LIVES! Don't believe me, ask Freeze Man! When humans die… They don't get "rebuilt" or "restored"! They disappear! Forever!" Sigma grumbled.

"E~H?"

"Of course: only someone who understands how the real world works like can realize what your precious bro was going to do…!"

"But… That Quick Man guy…!"

"Quick Man was bluffing! He didn't intend to do that! So, Freeze Man, who'd been watching was disappointed… And sent your bro to do it for real! We've got it recorded! What he said at the time! Maybe you need someone to show it to you? Huh?" Sigma fumed.

"T-then… Our payback strategies have been pointless?"

"From the start! You're ex-members of a defunct terrorist org! You're criminals! We've all told you countless times! Go back to your turf and improve a show or something! Shoo, shoo!"

"No! We won't give up so easily!"

"Fine! Come at full power!" He challenged.

He stepped forward and loomed over them while his body seemed to blacken further and his eyes began to glow in a brighter, menacing red color: the group began to shiver.

"T-this guy's scary~!" The other 4 yelped.

"T-this is nothing! Be men! Samurai Attack!"

"YA~H!"

"Fine! Eat punch!"

The 5 of them ran for Sigma and jumped but he merely propelled his left fist forward and hit Jiiro and another 2 to each of his sides: the blow sent them flying across the air and landed over 10 meters away: the other two missed the target: Sigma quickly spun around with the blade and knocked them away from the blade's strength.

"You're weak, anyway. I'm sure even Guts Man and Ice Man could beat ya by now. Scram and don't come back! Else I'm really gonna run out of patience and send ya to the Navi Prison! Where ya should be at!" He threatened.

"YA~H!"

They all run away while tossing the _samurai_ outfit stuff: Shadow Man appeared there and fumed, annoyed.

"Talk about stubborn idiots. Hard to believe I counted on them to defeat Rock Man years ago. I was too stupid." He scoffed and crossed his arms.

"Yeah. Guess this should be a lesson for 'em… Time will tell!"

"I'll keep an eye on those from time to time just in case. Did you find the source of the leak, by the way?"

"Search Man did! A hired spy that pretended to be a technician: it'd seem the orders came from a General Molotov… Someone very ambitious and very warmonger… But now that we leaked to Sharo that he was involved in "hacking of Net Police confidential files" they're gonna have his head on a silver platter for trying to start up a mess. Guess they're going to recall those 4 too… Seems like they're the only ones who knew." Sigma explained to Shadow Man.

"Fine. At least we solved this before that leak spread."

"Yeah! We're going to alter the file and make up a fake face. That should impede any ambitious idiot from searching for Bapgei."

"Good idea. We've been a bit too _naïve_ in this aspect."

"Yeah. But we learnt from the mistake…"

"I heard a raging mole was here… Where is it?" Fire Man suddenly rushed up to them.

"Raging mole? There were only the Cut Man Bros."

"Those idiots? Sheesh."

"Say, guys… Where are the raging snipers?" Colored Man looked around.

"I don't see any raging monkeys either." Elec Man frowned.

"Where is the spice bargain sale?" Magic Man eagerly asked.

"Shah, shah, shah! Where's that Zoan Gate Man guy?" Needle Man rushed in, looking around.

"Hum. I cannot detect that representative from the private research lab, sir…" Laser Man reported next.

"Cloud Man." Shadow Man summed up in two words.

"Oh come on!" The newcomers complained.

"Mwah, hah, hah. My new "Urgent News" channel is a success!" Cloud Man looked down (literally) from atop a building.

"Sheesh."

"Well then! Got other stuff to take care of… Beware of non-legged and non-winged second-class DUCKS! Nyah, hah, hah, hah!"

Cloud Man fled while the rest of the Navis fumed.

"I can't believe I fell for that!" Needle Man hissed.

"Me too…!" Yuriko complained.

"I'm such a blockhead. Why didn't I question the email's contents? Why would someone ask to meet me like that?" Dr. Regal sighed.

"Huff. Annoying clowns." Dr. Wily grumbled.

"By my beard!" Hinoken complained next.

" _What rascals! Aniki~_!" Count Elec grumbled.

"Gauss Magnets isn't involved into this! Count Elec!"

"Y-yes, Dr. Wily – sama!"

"As expected of that bitch's pawns…" Madoi was hardly impressed.

"Hum. We have lowered the guard." Maha didn't lose his cool.

"Huh? Ah! Dream Aura!" Elec Man suddenly gasped.

"What? Ugoh!"

"Magnet Man, come to try again?"

Elec Man activated a Dream Aura just as something collided with it and Magnet Man turned visible: Sigma wasn't too surprised.

"Hoh, hoh, hoh!" Tesla Magnets laughed as she opened her Operator screen.

" _You again!_ Tesla!"

"Again AND AGAIN! Uncle! 'Till I prove my power is above yours!" She smirked and signaled him with the right index finger.

"Heh. I did some updates." Dr. Wily chuckled.

"E~H?" She gasped.

"Uh-oh." Gauss Magnets muttered in the background.

"Like these! Absorber: on!"

"Absorber…? Ugoh! My electricity…! Grrr! Mag Missile!"

"Slow! Mini Bomb!"

"Uack! Damn it! Mag Ball!"

"Too slow! Mini Bomb!"

"Guoh!"

Elec Man's devices (the ones on his back) hummed and began to absorb electricity from Magnet Man: he shot some Mag Missiles but Elec Man jumped to dodge and threw a Mini Bomb at Magnet Man's head: the blast momentarily stunned him and he tried shooting Mag Balls but failed as well: another Mini Bomb hit his head as well while Elec Man drew a Bamboo Sword and quickly dashed to swing it and inflict a wound into Magnet Man: he recoiled.

"Sure kill! N-S Tackle!"

He formed his blue "bunshin" and both tackled for Elec Man: his Dream Aura became visible again and Magnet Man gasped yet he was too late to stop: he hit it and was bounced off while his "bunshin" screamed and exploded.

"Did I say I'd cancelled it?" Elec Man taunted.

"Damn it. They can now become invisible. That of the updates wasn't a joke… Guess we'll need some too… From Dr. Yoru…!"

"Sheesh. Didn't want to have to rely on him the whole time but looks like we'll need to! At least he's courteous to me!" Tesla fumed.

" _Hah! Have at you, silly Aniki_!"

"KI~H! JACK! This isn't over! Not yet!" Gauss got annoyed.

"Father! Don't get in my way!"

"Gimme that! I'll show you how it's done like!"

The screen shut down as they apparently began to fight over the PET: the other Navis calmly dispersed while Sigma shrugged.

"Meh! Ghosts of the past? Not scary at all. Let's go back and have fun!"


	12. Chapter 12: Trouble everywhere

**Chapter 12: Trouble everywhere**

17:08 PM (Japan Time), Monday January the 29th…

"… Well! Another Monday ended, Sakurai."

"Sure, Tamashita… And I see an annoying subject heading over here…"

"You gals! Confess!"

"The homeroom's teacher looking from the window."

"YIKES!"

"Told ya…"

Tamashita and Meiru were chatting as they crossed the school's main yard and headed for the street: both were calm and spotted Karazawa rushing for them while looking annoyed and bossy: Meiru signaled the second floor of the building and Karazawa gasped while Scherazade sighed, annoyed.

"Scherezade's being far more rational." Roll commented.

"Yeah. Guess you've realized it makes no sense to let that bitch manipulate you. Right?"

"Of course. Like I'd let that woman get away with it… With turning us into puppets to start a civil war, that is." Scherezade was serious.

"We told you before. That woman's mixed up real stuff and invented stuff to make up a cocktail to fuel paranoid people like you." Meiru was insisting in the meanwhile.

"You're behaving like that woman wants you to." Tamashita added.

"Like I'll let the ugly granny!"

"Then stop chasing us with questions and claiming we're part of some conspiracy." Meiru fumed.

"She needs strawberry milk!" Yaito giggled as she joined them.

"Or a cold shower in the changing room." Tamashita added.

"OI! Do you mean you're gonna bully me or what?"

"Of course not! We're adult enough to behave, Karazawa!"

"And that was but irony. You needn't interpret it as if it was literal."

"Sheesh. I feel SO frustrated…! I need to improve my grades…!"

"Then focus on studying. Else how did you get this far? With the help of a tutor, maybe?"

"T-that's…!"

"Most of the times." Scherezade confirmed.

"Thought as much. She appealed as the type who wanted to boast about having expensive purses and all on back when we met." Meiru wasn't too surprised.

"And dragged Saito – kun to a date only to bombard him with a list of silly nicknames that woman had made up. In short: to make fun of him. No wonder he's so cold to you. Maybe you thought your charms would work but the guys here aren't that easily deluded." Tamashita fumed.

"Heck. I had to land in the worst possible place ever…!"

"Yeah. Alright, see ya."

"We're busy. Unlike you."

"W-what? T-THESE GALS!" She fumed.

"Laugh and jump high!" Yaito made up a lame motto.

Yaito climbed into the limousine along with the maids while Tamashita headed to her home alone since Meiru had met up with Netto and the others: Tamashita hummed a tune.

"Any news, Felicia?"

"Apart from yesterday's ruckus… No. They've been quiet. And that's a sign that they're plotting something."

"Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if that "something" included ex – _senpai_ … I've got that hunch… A woman's intuition…"

"It's possible. With that madwoman in charge… You can't expect anything good coming from that mad brain."

"At all. I hope she contents herself boiling her brains 'till they smoke."

"Hum. I've got the feeling it won't be so easy."

"Could be. Check out Higureya to see if there's a new offer. It'd be good to have some good Battle Chips and to train. Just in case."

"OK! Be right back!"

Tamashita unlocked the house's door and shut down the alarm: she took off her shoes and put on a pair of brown slippers before heading into the first floor and into her room: it had a bed with white coverings, blue curtains, a working desk that had a framed photo of her and Nelaus, a bookcase and a picture of a white rose bundle: she left the schoolbag atop the bed and stretched.

"Aunt must've gone to meet her friends and play bingo… Let's have some water and start the homework…"

"No need to…! Tamashita…" A woman's voice rang out.

"Who…? Geh! Ex – senpai! Kataka Vanessa!"

"Same one!"

A woman that looked slightly older than Tamashita had shown up on the room's threshold.

She had long black hair which reached until mid-way along the neck and blue eye irises: she had a smug smile on.

She wore an open brown leather jacket, a gray wool shirt, a mini-skirt colored purple and black leather boots.

"How did you get inside? I asked for jammers against DCs!"

"Don't need those! I'm a good lock-picker. Like Jill Valentine. The gal inspired me…" She sneered.

"What about the alarm?"

"I only had to come in when your aunt was here and hide in the storage room until you came in…"

She suddenly drew a Beretta M9 gun with a silencer from the right coat pocket and aimed it at Tamashita: she wasn't too surprised.

"And now you're coming with me… An excellent person is waiting for you… Wants me to prove them how good I am…"

"Anaya, huh."

"Indeed! IQ – sama! And soon that Sakurai and that Karazawa will join us as well… Long with your pretty Navis…" She sneered.

"By the way: did you know you've got an imitation in your hands?"

"Imitation? No way! I tested it and…!"

She lowered her sight at the gun and began to check it but Tamashita suddenly kicked it out of her hands with the right leg and quickly gripped her jacket's neck to perform a _judo_ hold and throw her to the ground: Kataka groaned while Tamashita picked the gun.

"You forgot I was one of the best in the _judo_ club."

"Sheesh. I totally forgot!" Kataka was rubbing her right wrist and sweating from nervousness.

"Thought as much… Felicia!"

"Coming!"

Felicia materialized and assumed a fighting stance: Kataka cursed and knew she was cornered.

"Devil! I was so close…!"

"Any odd signatures, Felicia?"

"No. There was nothing on the Cyber World either. And not in a 250 meter radius either…"

"Hmmm… We can't make sure if this bitch came alone or has some backup yet I wouldn't be surprised if Anaya ran out of patience and decided to toss this bitch away like a broken suit..."

"Could be…"

"No way! IQ – sama told me I'd win for sure!"

"Sounds like a typical lie… Nelaus – kun told me Twilight used a lame pretext to get rid of Yuriko – san because he foresaw that she'd want to quit the org…"

"I called Superintendent Manabe and she's on her way here. Should be about to arrive…"

"Make sure to check she's the real one just in case."

"Sure."

The sound of a patrol car approaching could be heard: Felicia warped and a few seconds later Manabe and some policewomen walked into the room: the policewomen handcuffed Kataka and had her stand up.

"Kataka Vanessa! You're under arrest for illegal entry, gun possession and abduction attempt! Take her away!"

"You bitches! I'll remember this!" Kataka hissed.

"By the way, Superintendent… Did you propose to Superintendent Akechi, ma'am?" Tamashita suddenly asked.

"P-propose to…! Superintendent Akechi…? There's no such person in the Net Police!"

"Ah. Guess that's proof you're the real one. If it was Anaya she'd surely improvise saying "yeah"…"

"Hum! Good point. I wouldn't be surprised if that woman attempted to impersonate me… Stay sharp, Aura – chan. You can't be sure that that woman isn't up to something nefarious…"

"I know, ma'am."

"Good. We're going to interrogate Kataka but I doubt her knowing anything of importance to begin with."

"Yeah. Straight to the women's prison."

"Of course. See you."

"Good afternoon. So, Felicia? What do you think?"

"Height and body mass checked out so…"

"Good. Now I can focus on the homework. I'll tell Nelaus – kun tomorrow but guess Superintendent Manabe will let him know."

"OK. Number Man must've finished the maintenance of the store so I'm going to check it out. I'll have the line open."

"Sure."

Tamashita sat on the chair in front of the desk and readied the materials.

"Well! Time to study. I must be ready for the February exams!"

17:31 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Welcome!"

"Hi, Number Man."

"Ah! Felicia – chan. Good afternoon."

"Any offers?"

"Yes. Super North Wind, 20% off… Very useful for opponents who use Barrier – class Battle Chips!"

"Good."

"Hi, Felicia."

"Hey, Roll. Come to shop too?"

"Sure."

Felicia stepped into Internet City's Higureya and Number Man greeted her before announcing an offer: Roll joined her as well.

"So this is the famed Higureya, huh." Scherezade also came.

"Number Man! De masu! Ladies, de masu?"

"Yeah. So what? Yamitarou."

"I have a very important question for the ladies! De masu! Can you please spare me one minute? De masu!" Higure requested.

"Higure – san… If it's about Mariko – sensei, then… How about you invite her to a see a film or something like that?" Roll sighed.

"B-b-but… Last time I tried to invite her, de masu… Something totally evil, blessed and repulsive happened! De masu!"

"Oh come on! Don't be a moron, Yamitarou. You mean the Bowl Man incident! That was about 5 years ago, you know?"

"WHAT? NOT 5 WEEKS AGO? MASU!"

"No." He flatly replied.

CRASH!

"Masu~…"

"Oh. Higure – san fell from atop the counter…" Shuuko calmly muttered, unsurprised.

"What's with the owner?" Scherezade asked.

"I'm sorry for the scare. He can be an idiot most of the time. Can I help you, miss?" Number Man apologized.

"Do you know how the Dream Sword works like?"

"Easy. Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword."

"Ah! Then I got it wrong. I thought it was the inverse order. Thanks."

"It's nothing, miss."

BRRRRO~M! CRRRRA~CK!

Rumbling rang out followed by the sound of lightning: everyone gasped and then looked outside the store to see how rain had begun to fall down into the street.

"Whoa. That's some storm. We hadn't had one in years. They normally don't but…" Roll muttered.

"MASU~! It's a Nazgûl! DE MASU~!"

"From the Lord of the Rings? Don't say nonsense, Yamitarou."

"But… This customer has a black armor and helmet…" Shuuko timidly interjected.

"Black armor and helmet? Oi. Don't tell me it's…" Felicia gasped.

"One of the Gurg!" A familiar voice chuckled.

"Cloud Man AGAIN?" Roll groaned.

"Beware! Higure Yamitarou! The Court of Chips has sentenced you to… exile!"

"MASU~! I'll drive you off with my skills!"

"Bowling skills?"

"MASU~! Don't mention that! It's an omen!"

"Oh come on. Yamitarou. You just suck at sports! It's no omen and no shitty crap like that. Moron."

"B-but…! Masu!"

"I know I was the one who sabotaged the system but I apologized and learnt from that. Now… Have you?"

"W-well… Masu…"

"What a mess." Scherezade fumed.

"You don't know half of it!" Roll sighed.

"That for real?" She sighed in defeat.

"For real-Lear!" Cloud Man made a lame pun.

"That your best shot?" Felicia taunted.

"Far from it, my lil girls! Do you want me to patch you to Vincent's endless tongue-twisters?"

"Oh heck. Not that. Anything but that." Roll gasped.

"Mwah, hah, hah. I'm a bad guy, ya know? I play dirty!"

"Typical." Felicia fumed.

"Hop!"

Cloud Man suddenly appeared inside of the store, chuckling and with his arms crossed: the girls were unimpressed yet Scherezade stepped forward and got into a fighting stance.

"Fine. Let's see what you can do, Far Eastern Princess!"

"I know my name's taken from a far eastern tale, _A Thousand And One Nights_ , so… Take this!"

She suddenly rushed for Cloud Man and quickly circled around him: Cloud Man didn't bother to move from there yet the ground suddenly collapsed and he sunk down to the waist into a pit: he growled and tried to use his arms to pull up but part of the ground melted and quickly cooled again so his arms got stuck into the ground.

"I can shift the properties of materials and their temperature. Something I learnt by looking up books on chemistry and physics."

"Heck. What a lovely beginning…! Gruh! Gotta find a way to get unstuck and now…! Garuus! Play with the girls!"

Some Garuus formed inside of the store and began to attack at wild: Number Man formed a Dream Aura to protect the counter and the Battle Chip data slots: one of them began to vomit continuous flames at the cooled molten metal and it quickly heated up again: he managed to free his hands and warped back into the ground as the pit got sealed: a scimitar suddenly got stabbed behind him followed by a dagger on his right shoulder: a cutlass showed up on his left elbow too and an axe landed atop his head: Cloud Man gasped and tried to figure out what was going on: a Roll Arrow flew into his chest and got stabbed there: it began to suck off HP and transfer them to the girls: Cloud Man groaned and tried to keep his balance but he was suddenly hit from behind with a stick: the blow made his helmet echo and dizzied him.

"D-damn it. I'm being beaten…! These lil girls can properly fight…! And what happened to the Garuus…? Huh! All beaten…!"

"How about you go back to your petty master and stop bothering us once and for all, huh? Or do you want more of it?" Roll challenged.

"If needed we'll make pieces outta ya." Felicia added.

"Don't look down on us 'cause we're women." Scherezade added.

"Heck! This is bad… VERY BAD…!" He grimly muttered.

"Yeah, I can see that! Escape!" Anaya ordered.

"Roger!"

Cloud Man managed to shake off the weapons and ran out of the store into the city: there was a sound and a groan followed by some cursing: the girls saw that Colonel had intercepted Cloud Man.

"Going somewhere?" He challenged.

"Heck! More interlopers! No more Mr. Nice!"

"Cloud Man!" Anaya reprimanded.

"Huh! Roger!"

"What. You're not going to show me what you can really do? Guess you're a coward indeed, Anaya Maria."

"KI~H! I don't want some stiff military man telling me that! Beat 'em up!"

"Roger, my lady!"

"I authorize the Dark Generator and the trump card! Do it! Blow 'em up!"

"Hra~h! Dark Generator: on! Mwah, hah, hah! Darkness Beam!"

"Hmpf!"

Cloud Man's body began to glow with purple energy while some amplified heartbeats rang out: he loaded an attack but Colonel suddenly tossed his cape at Cloud Man: it covered him and, the next second, Colonel's saber plunged into the mass building up: it imploded and the energy released formed some cracks on Cloud Man's armor: he groaned and stepped back as Colonel calmly picked up the cape and it automatically attached itself again.

"Eat this! Farewell!"

Cloud Man formed a purple mass of energy of his same height that ran for Colonel yet he simply aimed for the ground: the Rush Hole formed and the mass fell inside to then turn white and vanish while releasing a powerful shockwave that deleted the Rush Hole and some of the ground: Cloud Man cursed under his breath and warped away just as Colonel shot his gun and the blast narrowly missed: Colonel merely checked the situation as the storm ceased.

"Hmpf. Fools. Like a desperate measure would work… This should contribute to making people realize they're actually weak. If it erases some fear left behind by that of London as well then… Perfect. I should go back… Good work over there too." He muttered before nodding in approval to the girls and Number Man.

"We did what had to be done." Roll shrugged.

"Anaya will regret taking us lightly." Felicia smirked.

"Deserves it!" Scherezade nodded in agreement.

"Like I'd let that rascal damage Higureya…" Number Man fumed.

"Good enough. But don't get too confident. Remain calm and rational if you want to survive the battle. Goodbye."

"Alright! Now to fix the mess… And hope Yamitarou wakes up or we'll lose a customer or two… If only the guy behaved… Sheesh!"

20:02 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Sheesh. Here I wanted to go out into an evening stroll and this guy ambushes me on the park…!"

"Do I call for help, Raoul?"

"Wait a little bit more… I'm managing somehow…!"

"Hmpf. Raoul… The Court of Owls has sentenced you to… failure!"

"Don't laugh at me. Failure? You're the ones who fail the whole time to begin with."

"Hmpf."

Raoul was trying to fight Bapgei as he wore the "Talon" outfit in the Akira Park near the jungle gym: he was dodging his knives and countering the taunts.

"Besides! You're slow."

"Hmpf."

"Or so Swallow Man says."

"Hmpf."

"Cloud Man hacked your PKMN game and your team's speed dropped by 66.6%."

"WHAT? CLOUD MAN! YOU MORON! NOT AGAIN! LADY IQ WILL HAVE YOUR HEAD IN A SILVER PLATTER! LOUSY HACKER!" He got annoyed on the spot.

"Gotcha."

"Wha? Ugroh!"

Raoul smiled and quickly rushed for him: he grabbed him and ran until he had him collide with a tree head-on: the hit momentarily stunned him and Raoul took the chance to steal one of his short blades: he put some distance as Bapgei recovered and grumbled.

"Fuck." He cursed.

"Cloud Man was boasting it as of late, you see. It'd seem he thinks you wouldn't notice and bet 1000 Z with Swallow Man…"

"The damned lousy…!"

"Bapgei! Focus!" Anaya ordered.

"My apologies!"

"I'll deal with those idiots later. Focus on the battle!"

"Roger."

"Hmpf. Saved by the radio, huh?"

"Shut up." He was still annoyed.

"Maybe you need lessons from Bond?"

"Who'd want lessons from that womanizer amateur who destroys everything on his wake?"

"Dunno."

"You're really annoying me." Bapgei grumbled.

"Bapgei!" Anaya scolded.

"I'm sorry! It's just that…! The tension, ma'am…!"

"I know! Bear with it somehow! I don't ask the impossible, no? Just focus on beating the guy to a pulp!"

"Roger."

Bapgei drew his remaining short blade and rushed for Raoul: he grabbed the stolen short blade with both hands and got into a defensive stance to block the incoming attack: both struggled and broke apart: Bapgei tried again but Raoul didn't yield terrain.

"I didn't get to be respected in Heaven Town's underground so easily! I had to prove I was the strongest! Law of the strongest!"

"Heck. And here I thought you were soft."

"Soft? Hmpf! I'm as hard as rock! You better don't take me lightly or you'll end up with a fist on the stomach!" Raoul countered.

"Sheesh. What a string of bad luck!"

"Hmpf! Maybe you picked the wrong types to side with? That must be the source of your bad luck string!" Raoul taunted.

"Sheesh. I'd prefer Nelaus to you…!"

"Hmpf! Blame that petty woman."

"Hmpf! Men! So egoistic." Anaya fumed.

"Egoist? Talk about yourself! Treating people like they were things you could buy at stores… And never regretting what you've done!"

"Why should I? I did something no – one else did and won't be able to do ever again: rule the whole Japan underground! Without anyone figuring out my identity!" Anaya boasted.

"Hmpf. Rotten to the bones. Like an apple."

"HMPF! I'm not Vermouth!"

"I don't know who's that but I've got the feeling it's not a beauty."

"Hmpf…! Whatever the ever! I'd rather have that fierce Chianti! Anyway! Bapgei! Try something else!"

"Roger."

Bapgei put some distance and began to run in an "S" pattern to approach Raoul: he simply ran towards the trees and Bapgei gave chase yet Raoul let go of a thin branch he'd folded: the branch returned to its original position and, in the process, hit Bapgei: Raoul then delivered a punch on the stomach area and Bapgei groaned: Raoul proceeded to closing his right hand on the neck and use the left fist to hit the center of the chest: he let go and suddenly tackled his chest with his head: the blow robbed Bapgei of air for an instant and he fell to the ground: Raoul didn't waste time and dropped atop him while placing his right knee over the stomach area to keep him pinned: he held his arms up and gripped his wrists so that he couldn't fight back.

"I told you." Raoul dully reminded him.

"Huff, huff…! Damn it all!"

"I can't believe this punk can fight!" Anaya cursed.

"Hmpf! You underestimate me. I've got a score to settle with you lot!"

"Sheesh! Here I thought it'd be easy prey and this happens!"

"N-no apologies!" Bapgei gasped.

"You're not to blame! You obey my orders which is what you gotta do: it's my blame, alright! Sheesh!"

"Thought you were going to blame your ego." Raoul taunted.

"I'm going to…! Ah! I've had enough! I'll do a sortie! You go back!"

"Sortie…? Ah!"

Anaya suddenly showed up behind Raoul while carrying a crowbar on her right hand which she'd lifted: Raoul quickly let go of Bapgei and rolled to the left to dodge to Anaya ended up hitting Bapgei's head with it: she gasped and turned but Raoul was already on his feet and he'd closed his right arm around her neck from behind.

"That was close. But you talk too much."

"Sheesh! Bapgei! Do something!"

"P-please wait a second…! Ugh…! My stomach hurts…!"

"Aren't you a masochist?"

"When it comes to sex, yes! Not when I get my stomach busted!" He argued back.

"Sheesh! MARCO!"

"Roger."

Raoul gasped as a laser aim centered on his left eye from the NW, inside the forest: he let go of Anaya and ducked to dodge a bullet that flew through the air.

"Shit. A sniper rifle? That's really outta my league." Raoul grimly muttered under his breath.

"But not out of mine." A voice rang out.

"That voice…!" Anaya hissed.

"Ouwah!" Izono yelped close by.

Vadous showed up there while carrying a dull metallic blade on his right hand: he got into combat stance while Anaya ran for him with the crowbar, her face contracted into hatred: they both clashed but Vadous didn't yield terrain.

"Last time I checked a crowbar isn't a rival for a blade. And Izono there will be having a nap… And I destroyed the PSG-1 too."

"Damn it. To think you'd show up…! You damned traitor!"

"I don't care. You were destroying the future. And you always considered me to be a tool, a slave. You always laughed at me. Else you wouldn't have given me this name. But I keep it. Because I don't run away from my past: I face it." Vadous calmly shot back.

"Hah! And Kanou Shade ran away!"

"To protect Kuroshiro from Twilight. Kuroshiro knew it was necessary: and Kanou Shade wanted him to leave in peace and not with the threat of Twilight using him to harm others. No matter how much Twilight might've tried to make him "evil" his real nature was the same as Rock Man's: he hates to harm others. Another proof that you can't turn something good into something evil so easily. Even Vader ended up repenting and died as a Jedi…"

"Grah!" She knew Vadous had several points there.

"And your so-called "rule" was but a fantasy. You forced them to obey you through murder, blackmail, extortion, violence, and so on. Once your control was gone… They went back to destroying each other."

"Grrrr…!" She was getting further annoyed.

She suddenly stepped away and drew a fragmentation grenade yet someone ran past her in a blur and snatched it away from her hand: Omega was there and had grabbed it with the left hand while he held the saber on the right one.

"No cheat codes allowed." He dully announced.

"Fuck! Freeze Man! Emergency retrieval! NOW!"

There were three columns of light and the 3 villains got retrieved: Vadous and Raoul sighed in relief while Omega holstered the saber.

"It's getting somewhat risky, Boss." Omega warned.

"I know. But we must wait for a chance to retaliate… And to catch them."

 _Patience is the key to this campaign… A chance will come…!_


	13. Chapter 13: Mobs

**Chapter 13: Mobs**

09:18 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday January the 31st…

"… Nyah, hah, hah, hah."

"H-how did we end up like this?"

"I'm not sure, desu…"

"Pyururu?"

"Guts, guts?"

"Nyah, hah, hah, hah!"

Glyde, Ice Man, Aqua Man and Guts Man were surrounded by a horde of Heel Navis in Internet City: they were all nervous and shuddering and unsure of what to do.

"Excuse me! Glyde Cannon!"

"Blizzard!"

"Water Fountain!"

"Guts Hammer! GUTS!"

"Grua~h!"

The four of them began to attack the Heel Navis: they easily fell in front of their attack but more and more began to spawn next: there was a roar and a familiar wrecking ball hit some from behind: Knight Man suddenly landed there.

"I got your message!" He announced.

"Message?" Glyde frowned.

"Huh? Didn't you send a SOS?"

"No, sir."

"Odd. It said "Grand Miss Yaito Sama"…"

"It surely was a fake, sir. To lure you here, sir."

"Neo Gospel, huh? Talk about cowards." Knight Man grumbled.

"Metal Fist!"

Metal Man delivered a blow to the ground and deleted a few of the Heel Navis before helping the group.

"I got the SOS!"

"It was a fake, sir!"

"What? Who'd send a fake SOS?"

"Neo Gospel!" Knight Man replied.

"I'd heard of them…! So this is their handiwork? What for?"

"To gather battle data on us: maybe they've gotten paranoid and think we've got hidden potential! Gentlemen!" Glyde suggested.

"Could be…" Knight Man agreed it.

"Quick Boomerang! I've come to help!" Quick Man rushed in next by forcing a way through the mobs.

"You got lured by Neo Gospel, sir!"

"W-what? Devil!" He gasped.

"Dice Bomb! Aqua Man! You're alright!" Number Man rushed in as well, relieved.

"Pyururu~!"

"Hmpf! A gathering of weaklings!" Yamato Man suddenly showed up atop a building and taunted them.

"Talk about yourselves!" Knight Man shot back as he swung around.

"What was that?"

"You always rely on proxies!

"Grrrr!"

"Yamato Man!" Freeze Man hissed.

"Huh! Y-yes, sir!"

"Behave! Else…!" He threatened.

"R-roger, sir! I obey!"

"You better do and don't start with your manias!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"Quick Boomerang!"

"Kingdom Crusher!"

"Metal Wheel!"

"Glyde Cannon!"

"Blizzard!"

"Water Fountain!"

"Guts Punch! GUTSSSS!"

"So. Here you were. Like I predicted."

"Who…? Devil! You lowlife!"

"Indeed."

A voice rang out behind Yamato Man and he whipped around to end up facing Xon' Edos: he looked dull and uninterested while Yamato Man gasped.

"Devil. This is out of your league, Yamato Man! Pull out! Now!" Freeze Man ordered.

"R-roger! Grrr! One day…!"

"DO YOU WANT ME TO FREEZE YOU FOR A WHOLE MONTH?" He ran out of patience.

"N-no, sir! Escape!"

"Hmpf. Weaklings indeed… They run." Xon' Edos was hardly impressed.

There was a roar and he calmly turned around to see that the REX was aiming the railgun at him and was almost totally loaded: he shrugged and waited for the railgun to shoot: the electrical burst headed for him but broke down into several streaks that deviated and landed in different spots around him: he then hovered towards REX as it turned on the laser and shot it at Xon' Edos: he calmly extended his hands forward and formed a wormhole: the laser went inside of it and emerged again through a wormhole behind the gun: the laser hit the gun and blew it up: Twilight growled from inside the cockpit.

"You copied the Lazy Laser!" He growled.

"Not exactly. That was an ability I had installed on me."

"Sheesh! Whatever! Eat Gatling gun!"

The Gatling gun shoot out next but Xon' Edos merely hovered away at a calm pace yet he was faster than the bullets: he built up energy on his right arm and shot a purple streak of energy at the Gatling gun: it overloaded and exploded.

"A small-scale EMP…" He let out.

"Shit."

"We may be explorers but we are not _naïve_. We did experience an age of conflict between Network Navigators… We predicted such things would happen in the worlds where we would land. So we have several abilities to defend ourselves… Most of them based on a wise use of physics… In short: I use the head. You use rage. That is all." He dully lectured.

"An alien isn't gonna lecture me! The Dark Side of the Force is infinite! I'm the center of the Universe!"

"And that means you are above your useless master?"

"N-no!"

"Ah. Unless you specify…" He shrugged.

"Grrrr!"

"Twilight! Cool it down! Else I'm going to ground you again!"

"R-roger, my lady! As you wish!" He gasped.

"Remember to use the REX itself, not just the guns! Like in the VS RAY battle in Act 4!" Anaya reminded him.

"Understood!"

"So you cannot do anything by yourself. You need to rely on someone else to tell you what to do."

"Shaddup! I travelled across Time – Space! That was not an order of Their Grace but it was necessary!" He grumbled.

"Just shut up and FIGHT! Complaining comes LATER! MORON!"

Twilight shut up and shot the missiles towards Xon' Edos: 15 of them locked on him and flew for him yet he simply slightly moved the right hand left and right: the missiles suddenly exploded and Twilight gasped in disbelief.

"I slightly increased the air temperature. I ignited the remaining fuel to disable them." He admitted.

"Fuck! Eat this!"

Twilight made the REX slide forward towards the building Xon' Edos was at yet the ground suddenly froze and it slid faster than expected: Xon' Edos floated higher into the air as the REX crashed and got stuck into the building because of its high speed.

"Shit!"

"What a frail machine." He taunted.

There was a beep and a holographic screen with an emerald frame containing unknown glyphs showed up: some messages written in those unknown glyphs popped up.

"What? An attack on my vehicle's outer shell? Those are… RAY, was it? I see. So you were a distraction and all of your men are trying to get inside of it to steal my data…" He realized.

"Too late! I win! Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"I wonder about that. You seem to have forgotten I have a trump card in my vehicle the taste of which you experienced before…"

"Oh shit!"

Xon' Edos inputted some commands: there was a loud humming sound followed by an intense noise: some roars and shrieks rang out in a row before it all calmed down.

"The RAYs are deleted and your men fled due to heavy injuries."

"Fuck. I'm outta here!"

The REX escaped while Xon' Edos glanced at the Navis: they had finished with their opponents and were resting.

 _Hum. A desperate tactic. That was close. I better improve the defenses…!_

11:04 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Twilight seems to be getting desperate and paranoid. To the point that he though Ice Man, Aqua Man and Guts Man and Glyde posed a threat to his plans…"

"Really. And he lured other Navis as well to check out their potential. He somehow predicted Xon' Edos would show up too. At least he prevented the intrusion into his vehicle."

"Well. At least this will contribute to reducing the fear they left behind with that of London…"

"There you are!"

"Not you again."

"Confess! What's the "secret that change the world"?"

"Another of ex-Boss' lies: obviously enough!"

Netto, Saito and Nelaus had been talking on the classroom next to the windows when Karazawa rushed in: they sighed in defeat while she began to question them.

"Why do you keep on believing the woman who wants to make of you a catalyst to start a civil war?"

"Because you reek! Of plots!"

"Do you need to know that to survive?" Saito shot back.

"Yeah!"

"No."

"And you're one to decide?"

"It's common sense, miss. You seem to lack it."

"WHAT?"

"I totally agree!"

"Yikes! The homeroom teacher!"

The homeroom teacher showed up to intervene and Karazawa gasped.

"That criminal's manipulating you. What are you, her puppet?"

"NO!"

"You're not proving it."

"What!"

"You act like a puppet. You don't think. You act on impulses of jealousy and paranoia. Hikari Sr. is right: you don't need to know things that don't involve you to survive. All you need to do is to act RATIONALLY. TO USE THE HEAD!" She scolded.

"Shut up, granny!"

"GRANNY? ME? YOU'VE DONE IT! YOU'RE COMING WITH ME TO SEE THE HEAD TEACHER!"

"E~H?"

The homeroom teacher dragged her by the right arm despite Karazawa's attempts to get loose: the guys rolled their eyes while Meiru and Tamashita silently nodded in approval.

"That's the natural result of one's actions! _Jigou jitoku_!" Both girls muttered.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they filed her an expedient. Hope that becomes a lesson: you allow Anaya to manipulate you, you end up running into one hell of a mess." Netto calmly muttered.

"Sure thing…" Nelaus shrugged.

"Guys! News, news!" Dekao rushed in.

"What happened, Dekao – kun?"

"I got the trophy of "Greatest Student On Akihara Middle" by Sir Cloud! I'll show up on the news! Mwah, hah, hah!" He laughed.

"That's a troll by Cloud Man. Use the head." Netto sighed.

"E~H?"

"And "greatest" must mean in terms of body. In short: fattest student on the school." Netto explained.

"That rascal! Guts Man and I will beat 'im!"

"If he doesn't beat you before that." Nelaus warned.

"E~H?"

"What's with that idiot-like face?" Meiru scolded.

"Yikes!"

"Flee." Tamashita ordered.

Dekao ran away and Hikawa came in, unsurprised.

"I heard what happened. Really." He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Dekao doesn't change."

"He needs a mild shower!" Yaito giggled as she came back in.

"Guess that." Meiru sighed.

"Greetings, Reclaimers!" Guilty Spark suddenly hovered into the classroom from the corridor.

"What are you doing here, Spark?" Saito asked.

"I felt like studying the environment."

"Did someone else see you?"

"No. I used my camouflage."

"Good. We don't want people to see you and start panicking thinking it's Neo Gospel." Netto warned.

"Understood. Hmmm? Ah. New information from the Sentinels… They found a pink snake trying to sneak into a restricted section…"

"A pink snake?" Nelaus frowned.

"Never heard of those." Saito muttered, surprised.

"I'm afraid Cloud Man faked that report."

"Vexation! Such an interloper shall not fool me!"

"Well… No offense, Spark, but… He's fooled you several times with those "Explosive News"…"

"Hum! Fine. Let us admit it." He fumed.

"Speaking of the devil…" Sigma grumbled from Netto's PET.

"They're on the hall… AGAIN." Blood Shadow was annoyed.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah."

"Didn't we upgrade security?" Netto rolled his eyes.

"Sure did! The Net Police sent several technicians to do so… Ah! It's a damned hologram. A psychological trick." Blood Shadow realized.

"Beware! The DUSHMEN will beat the SMASHMEN!"

"HUH? It's stupid!" Sigma grumbled.

"The envoys of the envoy will envoy an envoy of the envoys to envoy the envoys of the envoy!" He made up a lame tongue-twister.

"Not Vincent again… Someone shut the guy in a madhouse!"

"Over my dead body!"

"Drunkard buddies?"

"Wha~t? Darkloids can't get drunk!"

"Who knows?"

"GBDXGFLGHKLDHLGHL!" He growled something undecipherable.

"Vexation! I am sure it is some insult directed at me!"

"Just you wait…! One day we'll raze cities to the ground…! Like we did in London…!"

"You didn't raze it to the ground. You just damaged the bridge in front of the Parliament."

"SHEESH! Robbing us of the glory~!"

"And besides. It doesn't fit with Anaya's ambitions to raze cities. She doesn't want to run out of "businesses"."

"Huff! I feel so annoyed…! I'm off! But we'll be back! That of a couple hours ago was nothing! Next time this Internet City will be blow up to pieces! I swear!"

"Bluff all you want. Kindaichi will figure out your tricks." Blood Shadow shot back.

"Kindaichi? Sheesh."

"The rascal's hologram has fled." Sigma reported.

"The guy wants to build up tension and to frustrate us. We must be careful not to let it build up or we'll start to yell at each other." Nelaus warned the group.

"Understood." Netto calmly nodded in agreement.

"Hmmm…" Saito looked pensive.

"What's up, Saito – niisan?" Netto asked.

"I suddenly got the hunch there's something from the past that I'm overlooking…" He admitted.

"Something these guys did?" Nelaus asked

"No… I've got the hunch it was from the WWW era… But I'm not sure what it was… Maybe I'll later remember."

"Alright."

"It surely was my security system: an empty basin over the tree-house door! Meijin – san fell for it!" Yaito giggled.

"No, that's not it. It had to do with the WWW… Maybe I can drop by Maha Ichiban's later and try asking Hinoken…" Saito rubbed his chin.

"OK."

"Hey! Guys! I've been nominated King of Brawls! A guy named Bargog told me that!" Dekao rushed back in.

"That's Balrog, a member of Rama… And he trolled you." Netto grumbled.

"No way! Shuuko – chan passed her misfortune into me~!" He yelped.

"Don't be so superstitious." Meiru scolded.

"Maybe he needs the Cold Empty Stare of Emptiness?" Yaito giggled.

"Don't involve Miyuki – san next." Netto rolled his eyes, exasperated.

"Maybe you need some scolding by your dad." Meiru suggested.

"E~H?" Yaito gasped.

"Let's go have some fresh air before break ends. We really need it."

"I agree with you, Nelaus. Let's shake off tension. Maybe Sigma will come up with a clever joke, for once. Or Rush will drop by. Heh!"

12:35 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So, Charles… Did Vadous contact you?"

"Yeah. Things haven't changed much. Anaya is constantly scolding Twilight, Izono looks on and Opoulos manipulates the intelligence agencies to start a feud between them and dragging the Marine Corps, the Navy and the Air Force into it…"

"By the way… Nokay isn't here today?"

"Had some urgent business to do…"

"Urgent indeed!"

"What happened?"

Charles and Martin had been chatting in the meeting room Charles had been at some days ago: Nokay suddenly burst in, totally annoyed and angered, to their surprise.

"My bro, Matthew…"

"He's working in a Barcelona company, no?" Charles recalled.

"Turns out the President of that company was a criminal!"

"What did he do? Embezzlement?"

"No! He picked young guys around our ages in the company who had no connections here because they'd come from other countries and suddenly appointed them as his secretaries… That mean higher salary but more work… It was usual for them to stay extra hours…"

"And then?" Martin asked.

"One night he'd tell them "good work" and drive them to their flats… The man would leave but it turns out that there was an ambush of some Choina mafia men in the building… And they would be kidnapped… To be forced to take part in underground gay sex movies…"

"Fuck!" Charles cursed.

"That happened to 3 of them before it happened to my bro too. The rascal said that the previous ones had quit because they got better offers. No – one questioned anything because all of them had been there for a little time and hadn't interacted much with other workers…"

"But you found it odd that you couldn't get into contact with your bro so you asked the local police to investigate?"

"Yeah. Through the "Committee"… They sent an agent to ring at bro's flat door during 3 days but he never replied. The agent then checked the public staff list of the corporation and found that, in the site, the previous secretaries' names were still there… He began to look at LinkedIn but their profiles said they were still working on that company… So he brought that evidence plus a couple workers' statements to the police… And they began to investigate…" Nokay explained.

"And found the connection between the President and the mafia?"

"Yeah. The Mafia man openly came to the company but everyone thought it was a man from some Chinese corporation. But the police had him on the Interpol's "WANTED" list: he'd been smuggling drugs into France through the Marseille port… They knew he was up to something but lacked evidence to raid his locales… They gathered witness accounts that said they'd seen that man dropping by the flats of the vanished workers and checking the mailboxes… That wasn't a coincidence."

"Of course not. So that gave them enough arguments for the judge to justify a raid of the place?"

"Yeah. They raided it and found the 4 vanished workers, bro included, being forced to take part in gay sex… The President rascal was there too and some other presidents… They arrested them all, the head of the gang included, and freed them… The "Committee" just sent me the report an hour ago…"

"Anaya could be involved at some stage…" Charles muttered.

"Or maybe it's something that mafia did on its own. I guess that President guy had some debts or something and came up with a deal with those to get the money to pay off the debts…" Davis guessed.

"Man. What rascals." Lander fumed.

"Huff. At least bro is alright… He's under observation at the hospital to make sure he didn't develop any illness… He's still confused and disoriented so I haven't been able to speak to him yet…"

"What'll happen to that company now?"

"The VP will be appointed head of it. The police investigated him but he's totally clean."

"Alright."

"Maybe we should take this as a warning that other people connected to us that live in other parts of the world could get dragged into this… But we mustn't panic either." Charles muttered.

"I know. Ayase got involved into their plots…! At least he's managed to overcome it, but…!" Martin angrily muttered.

"I know, Martin. But going over that won't lead anywhere."

"You're right. Huff."

"Heh! We only need tell those rascals we've got the Bates Ranch on our side… "I just bought the Bates Ranch and…!"… "THE BATES RANCH?"… "The Bates Ranch! Someone save us!"… "Mommy!"… "Hah, hah… The Bates… Ranch… Hip… The Bates Ranch… THE BATES RANCH? MOMMY~!"… All the manly guys in the Saloon run off!" Lander quoted.

"Really. What was so special about that ranch?" Martin asked without being really interested.

"It had a reputation of being cursed!"

"But it wasn't true, right?"

"Nope! A shadowy fellow set up all kind of mechanisms to give the impression paranormal phenomena happened… Ghostly voices, beds would rise until the ceiling, a buffalo's nostrils would smoke, another one's eyes would glow… Mysterious figures appeared and disappeared around the perimeter… There even was a walking skeleton! "Don't make that face, ma'am! It's not like the Grim Reaper's standing behind me, no?"… The skeleton lands the right hand on Luke's shoulder! "Early morning visit! Go back to your road! Femurs, tibia, scapula, humerus… Nothing's lacking!"… He then picks the skull and looks pensive with a Shakespeare canvas on the background… "To be or not to be… Well, there ARE some guys here!"…"

"A reference to _Hamlet_ , huh?" Charles guessed.

"Obviously. Skull, Shakespeare, to be or not to be…" Davis shrugged.

"Luke finds a hidden staircase behind a wall leading to a basement… "There's no disgrace sans venture… I've got a lil idea of what awaits us… At the end of the stairs… We've got company! A mirror! Of course! Only I could be faster than myself!"… "Lower your weapon, cowboy! It's useless against the Prince of Darkness!"… "Guess that!"… "Huh?"… THUD! "Now let's have a closer look to this "Prince of Darkness"… Hmmm… Looks like the vendor is the mastermind."…"

"I see. So the vendor made up the tale and the setups to frighten buyers away and buy it back for a meager price. To then sell it again."

"Yep! Heh, heh, heh. I always like how Luke takes the man's proclamation literally… If the weapon, the Colt, doesn't work then… Resort to a good uppercut!" Lander chuckled.

"Well. It did help to improve the mood a bit."

"Beef! Hear me, Tuna Agency! I'll invent the Beef Agency!" Commander Beef yelled from the street.

"You got trolled!" Charles ran out into the corridor and popped his head out through the window.

"E~H?"

"I knew it." Shark Man sighed.

"Ah! Mariko – sensei! This agency's tuna is bad! Never buy them tuna!"

"I'm Yuriko! Can't you tell us apart by the clothes, Commander Beef? Couldn't you pay more attention?" Yuriko sighed.

"And that's the Justice Council, not a tuna agency. By the way. Are there tuna agencies to begin with?" Dark Miyabi added.

"Well…" He trailed off.

"Nope." Shark Man quickly confirmed.

"Devil! But Commander Tuna said that…"

"That's Cloud Man! Shah, shah, shah! I'd stake anything on that."

"Obviously." Shadow Man wasn't surprised.

"Devil! Let's go, Shark Man! Time to bust down those evils! By Beef and Tuna I go and step and advance and march!"

"Hmpf." Miyabi was hardly impressed.

"This man won't change." Yuriko sighed.

"You needn't tell me."

"Souls filled with darkness haunt us, you folk…" Miyuki suddenly showed up there and announced in her usual cold and monotone voice.

"Yikes! When did you…?" Yuriko gasped, for once.

"I didn't feel their presence!" Miyabi was baffled, for once.

"I didn't see her either and I'm on the first floor…!" Charles was surprised as well.

"She must've been hiding close by." Martin calmly guessed.

"When will she stop bringing up occult stuff? This isn't _Yu-Gi-Oh_!" Nokay complained behind them.

"I foresee bloodshed…" She dramatically muttered.

"Oh come on. Miyuki. Be realistic." Skull Man complained.

"Tell Saloma to shower her!" Yuriko told Skull Man.

"Already did so… But it doesn't seem to have worked."

"Wha?" She was incredulous.

"If one strengthens their will then no outside force shall shatter it. It would seem my presence awakens forbidden spirits. I shall go fetch a tool to purify the souls."

"She should be in a terror film." Yuriko ironically muttered.

"That glare…! Not even I can do something like that." Miyabi sighed.

"What's with her?" Nokay was horrified by now.

"I don't wanna know. Really." Charles rolled his eyes.

"I don't, either." Martin fumed.

"Now, now! Guys!" Davis tried to calm them down.

"We gotta calm down!" Lander added.

 _Lander's got a point… Let's calm down… And then we'll win…!_


	14. Chapter 14: Brotherly brawl

**Chapter 14: Brotherly brawl**

09:34 AM (Japan Time), Friday February the 2nd…

"… So, Boss… What are those rascals up to?"

"Liquid seems to be obsessed with coming and fighting me again."

"Using the cheats?"

"Maybe. But Anaya is skeptical."

"No wonder."

"The rascal just needs a kick in the arse."

"Of course. Boss. We know their location. We know what they do 24/7… Why don't we bring a ton of fighters there and bring them down in one sweep?"

"I've thought about it yet…"

"We can jam the DCs and the warping and the portals… Sink the ship, destroy any choppers or jet fighters…"

"I know! But… I don't why… I've got the feeling we might stumble upon something unexpected."

"If it's game rip-offs we can deal with those. That's why I say we bring a lot of numbers."

"Yeah, but…"

"Don't you want to endless this pointless conflict?"

"Of course!"

Omega and Vadous were discussing inside of a largely empty metallic room that had a large viewing window looking out into the Earth from an orbital path: other satellites and the ISS could be seen out there.

"Then?" Omega asked.

"We must be careful."

"You think they could self-destruct to rob us the merit of capturing and locking them in the Navi Prison?"

"Remember the DNN battle, Omega… They did it, you know?"

"Hmmm… If we allowed that to happen, then… They'd get away with it and it could be seen as a failure even if we caught the rest of the gang… Liquid isn't as stupid as to blow up and Anaya would never order him to do that."

"Precisely. That's why I want to wait for a chance. Maybe it'd better to let them go out and start some ruckus. Since we know where and when they'll show up, catch them one by one…"

"We could use what we did with those rebuilt Darkloids that they used in their debut season… Use a Monolith to catch them, suck off all but 1 of their HP and warp them to the Navi Prison. Once there we can uninstall the Dark Generator and other abilities and reduce their power to that of a normal civilian Navi…" Omega calmly suggested.

"Good. We'll do that when we get a chance. But we should try to make it look like we were improvising. Those guys could get jumpy at the slightest sign or happening and run off the hideout… And then we'd take months to locate them again." Vadous warned.

"So we let them start the ruckus and then rush one or two to the scene, as usual… Problem is… Even if we catch one… If we don't catch the others then it's pointless… Because they could ALL come out just to rescue one of them…"

"Hum. You've got a point. We could start planning and simulating several tactics and options and wait for the right time."

"OK."

"By the way… Those Chinese dragon holograms that pop out from time to time in the "open world"… Dragon's handiworks?"

"Trill. He's been copying them off Dragon's album book.

"Well. Since they're holograms then… No problem… You authorized Iris to upload them?"

"Yeah. Didn't think of telling you because they were so harmless and you were busy talking with Chief Lezareno and Colonel Talos about the monitoring in Melbourne…"

"Fine. Regarding that front… Bapgei still comes and goes. But is on his toes. So we must keep watch from a distance."

"Of course. And we said we wouldn't involve people related to the man, anyway."

"Yeah. They don't know anything."

"Boss? It's me, Kir Osh…" A PET that Vadous had on his belt's right side beeped.

"Did something happen?"

"Anaya tried to use my queer step-brother to start a scandal."

"But failed?"

"Yeah. Because no –one reacted to the rumors she spread. Guess she picked the wrong place to spread them. And no – one knew about me to begin with. Since I made up this name on my own and very little people know it to begin with…" Kir Osh explained.

"What about that transfer student?" Vadous asked.

"As far as I know… She got disciplinary punishment: she has to mop and broom the whole 2nd floor each afternoon as punishment. Guess her aunt gave her some heavy scolding too…"

"No wonder. After insulting a teacher like that… Too many overseas college dramas… They're too bad of an influence… Didn't they teach her in grade school to respect the teachers?"

"They did teach me, yeah. And I guess that hasn't changed. But you know: teen girls and their rebellious spirit and all. Had a girlfriend once but didn't last more than a week. She was far more concerned about going and trying out perfumes, lipsticks, mascaras and all than trying to get along with me… And she ditched me for another "far more macho guy"…"

"Women. Too complicated for my taste."

"You needn't tell me!"

"Alright. And, apart from that?"

"Nothing else insofar. The underground keeps as it is."

"No new bounties or anything?"

"None as the undercover agents have been able to figure out… No new business either."

"Hum. Tell them to not to lower the guard nevertheless."

"OK."

"I'll contact Davis… Do you copy, Davis?"

"Yeah, Omega."

"Did you find anything new?"

"No. Save for a bucket of water before the entrance…"

"A bucket of water?"

"I suspect Miyuki – san…"

"What for? To repel evil spirits?"

"Guess that. Really. Saloma – san's been trying to get her to be reasonable but doesn't seem to have had much success insofar."

"She'd been pretty quiet until now: why did she suddenly turn so active? Is there some reason?"

"Maybe she felt bored."

"Huff. Fine, fine. And?"

"Hmmm… Ah yeah. Martin told us that the MI is still searching Turkey, convinced that Neo Gospel's hideout is on "the badlands"…"

"More fake info leaked by Opoulos to mislead them… Didn't Martin warn them?"

"Yeah. But they paid no heed. "Computer nerds stay out of this!"… That's what they told him!"

"HUH? Oh come on! The Net Saviors aren't computer nerds! They came to fight back Neo Gospel there, on London, and that's how they thank them? They must believe they do it all perfectly." Omega grumbled.

"Yeah. They must believe their precious James Bond will come and flashily blow their base up." Davis sighed.

"Did you try telling the FBI guys too?"

"Chief Lezareno tried. But they said it couldn't be. And that the guy who was there when the DNN takeover was a lookalike."

"Lookalike? Sheesh. They've got a reality distortion field corrupting the air around them. They only pay heed to what's convenient to them. I guess that the President must've given up in stopping them from believing what Opoulos says too."

"Guess that."

"Dave~… I'm the spirit of the Monolith… I want _otaku_ soul…" Charles joked close by.

"Don't tell me, Charlie~ Team… Any news?"

"Capt'n Sommerston found that a Navi Car Race team was being financed secretly by the Gauss Console…"

"What team is it?"

"A team named "Team Majestic"…"

"Hum. Did he find out why?"

"It'd seem that the captain of the team is a macho handsome type and Tesla Magnets is mad about him. She must believe that financing them will allow them to win. And then, to pay back the favor, he'll have to marry her." Charles explained.

"In short: it's a random caprice by Tesla Magnets."

"Sure. Guess Gauss must be furious to see money spent on that."

"That's what happens when you spoil your children: they become that type of adults that think they can get away with anything they do."

"Huff. Yeah. And Daniel says that he found that that bar we'd gone to once named "Ancient City" was actually a distributor of marijuana… The police raided them and closed the place."

"It did have the atmosphere, yeah. They tried to scam 50,000 Z off us by telling us what the TV had told about that wanted criminal."

"Sure… And we had to beat up the roughnecks there… It turned into a Bond-like brawl!"

"What about Nokay's bro?"

"He's been given the go-ahead to leave the hospital. He was depressed for a couple days but now seems to have recovered."

"Good."

"As for the other members… They're in the middle of investigations… Commander Alamantz called me to say he was hot on the trail of a wanted smuggler…"

"OK."

"Warning. Missile approaching. ETA: 63 seconds." Warnings suddenly rang out along with sirens.

"Activate defensive barrier!" Vadous ordered.

"Roger. Barrier activated. Mass calculations reveal a 68% possibility that the mass of it will overload the barrier on impact. About 80% of the mass would be destroyed but 20% would remain."

"Any signatures onboard? What kind of missile is it?"

"Analysis shows it is a ICBM without a warhead… And there is a Net Navi riding on the very rear of the missile, the section estimated to survive the impact with the barrier…"

"Twilight?"

"Historical data matches."

"So he wants to do a dramatic entrance. Where would the remaining missile impact?"

"Orbit calculations estimate impact in Observation Deck 6."

"We're at Deck 3… Good. Let's get moving there. Black Ace! Lock all doors when we exit this room."

"Roger. Missile will meet barrier in 36 seconds."

"Gotta hurry!"

They both ran out into the corridor and headed left: they stood to the sides of the door leading to the aforementioned room and nodded to each other.

"Missile will hit barrier in 23 seconds."

"I'm ready, Boss." Omega had drawn the saber.

"Me too… Let's show this rascal what we're made of."

"Impact with barrier in 12 seconds."

"Make sure to expel excess energy generated in the barrier!"

"Affirmative. 5 seconds to impact… 4… 3… 2… 1… Impact."

There was a sudden jolt and some vibrations spread across the structure: the ground began to shake as if it was an earthquake.

"Status report: 2 per 2 hole opened in the barrier… 14% of the missile's original mass remains… It would seem it had accelerated seconds away from the barrier hoping to produce more kinetic energy… The remaining section is speeding towards the Plexiglas window… Impact estimated in 6 seconds…" Black Ace detailed.

Both silently nodded in approval: there was the sound of an explosion, glass shattering and the roar of a sudden decompression: a heavy sound rang out next followed by a tackle into the door which didn't bulge: another tackle rang out.

"Pressure stabilized." Black Ace reported.

"Good. Turn on the energy field from the inside side for 5 seconds. Then shut it off. Turn it on again once we get in."

"Roger."

There was a brief humming sound followed by an electrical frizzle and a yelp of pain: the door opened and both rushed inside before it got locked again and a green electrical field formed: Twilight was just managing to get back to his feet after having been repelled.

" _Kyoudai_ ~!" He hissed.

"Hmpf. So you showed up. Liquid. I had the hunch you would." Vadous told him as he drew both blades.

"HMPF! I don't care if I'm predictable! IQ – sama told me that this time around I have the power to crush you all!" Twilight hissed and looked in a pretty foul mood.

"Oh yeah? How?"

"Prove it." Omega taunted.

"With these excellent assistants! Go!"

"Hah, hah, hah! Laugh!"

"Gra~h! Anger!"

"Sniff, sniff… Cry~!"

"Kya~h! SCREA~M!"

"The B&B Corps, huh?"

The B&B Corps suddenly appeared behind Twilight who laughed: they were followed by the FROG troopers who rushed forward with their P90 guns drawn: they began to open fire without warning but Vadous simply formed a metallic helmet with shades and a face-mask that looked like Blues' one: the bullets bounced off it while Omega quickly moved and slashed the enemies: they screamed and fell to the ground: they were suddenly consumed by bluish flames and their bodies ended up burnt: Omega paid no heed and fought the troopers while Vadous clashed blades with Twilight: the B&B Corps merely looked on.

"And those are supposed to beat us?"

"Damn. I can't warp them into the corridor…!"

"Like I wouldn't predict you'd use cheats. I set jammers on the whole of the HQ save this room."

"Sheesh!"

"If you're so fed up with me how about you scram elsewhere?"

"Like I would! Kanou Shade let out I was alive in that other "Universe" and to top it off there's an interloper who could be stronger than that damned alien scout!"

"It'd seem the Goddess of Light has been stopping you."

"There aren't any Gods!"

"Then why did you say you'd become one a few days ago?"

"Grrrr!"

"Huh? Sheesh. Laughing Octopus isn't there. Must be using the Octo Camo to hide close by." Omega spotted.

"Try to find anything out of place. It can't be perfect mimicry."

"OK. Sheesh. Now this."

"Huh? Oh heck. Screaming Mantis and The Sorrow Doll…"

In effect: Screaming Mantis was controlling the corpses of the FROG Troopers and having them keep on fighting: Omega grumbled and dashed forward to swing the saber and cut them: a tentacle suddenly shoot out from within the corpses and hit his saber, tossing it away: before he could react, Crying Wolf rammed into him and Raging Raven shot a grenade at him: Omega grumbled and tried to recover.

"Maybe we'll need some help."

"Let's warp them into the map and have them fight the whole caster of the Smash Bros. game." Vadous snickered.

"Oh yeah. Black Ace!"

"Affirmative."

All enemies got warped out of the room and Twilight gasped: Omega picked his saber and switched places with Vadous to begin attacking Twilight and force him into defense.

"This is Iris… The troopers have been defeated and I deleted their "corpse" sprites to avoid Mantis from controlling them. She's trying to control me but it still behaves in-game, that is, it can only control someone who has nanomachines." Iris reported.

"Oh crap! I forgot that and mixed it up with Psycho Mantis!" Twilight gasped.

"Guess you never bother to sit down and put some order to the tags. Maybe they're as chaotic as some NicoNico Douga video tags. Like… "It's coming from above! Look out!"…" Omega snickered.

"GRRRRR!"

"What are you, a Garura?"

"ARE YOU CALLING ME A KANGAROO?"

"Yeah. By the way. "Kangaroo" means "I don't know" in Australian native language. The English explorers believed it was name but it wasn't."

"Like it matters!" He grumbled.

"Ask Mantis."

"Sheesh!"

"I picked some PKMN as well to help me out. As for Trill… I put him in sleep mode in our room. I don't want to involve him."

"Wise move."

"Insofar, I beat Mantis and Octopus… Wolf and Raven remain… I'll handle somehow."

"Good. But don't lower the guard."

"Roger."

"Sheesh! I underestimated that lil girl! Damn!" Twilight grumbled next.

"No wonder. Anaya always said we should only fight other men and ignore all women altogether."

"IQ – sama! Grand! Invincible! Immortal!"

"Invincible? Were it the case she wouldn't have been locked up in New Orleans, no?"

"Bah! Out of my way, Feral!"

Twilight warped and tried to attack Vadous from behind but he calmly turned around and blocked with one of his blades: Twilight hissed and he seemed to be further annoyed.

"I'll show you what happens when you underestimate the Dark Side of the Force~!"

"I'm SO scared."

Twilight roared and began to absorb energy from the surroundings: the energy fields dimmed and lost power while the fluorescent lights shut off next: the energy accumulated around Twilight's body while making a ghostly green glow: Twilight suddenly dashed for Vadous at a faster speed and swinging his blade yet Vadous only had to step to the right: Twilight shot past his position and met the far wall: the blow momentarily stunned him and he recovered as he shot a powerful green beam from the blade itself: Vadous simply spawned a black tall slab and the beam bounced off inches before reaching the slab back towards the source.

"Fuck!"

Twilight dived for the ground to his right and dodged as the beam hit the restored energy field: the whole of it frizzled but it then stabilized.

"Excess energy vented into outer space." Black Ace reported.

"Try to beat this." Vadous challenged.

"Those damned alien pieces of junk…!" He growled.

"If it could survive in orbit around Jupiter for millions of years then I doubt you'll be able to beat it so easily." Vadous snickered.

"Davidson, the rascal! I'll bury them next! After you!"

"If you can."

"I can! With the Dark Side of the Force!"

"Shoo, shoo. There's no such thing to begin with."

"There is! I'm its incarnation!"

"What, wanting to honor your initial name of "Sidier" that Anaya later discarded?"

"GRRRR!"

"You're but a dog to yank around the chain."

"Shut up! I'm IQ – sama's ultimate creation!"

"Weren't we all to begin with? That was the first lesson to us all."

"Guh!" He knew Vadous had a point.

"Stop relying on proxies and fight me like a man." Vadous challenged as he sheathed his blades.

"I'm going to beat you to a pulp!"

Twilight tossed the sword and closed his fists to rush for Vadous: they began an exchange of fists and kicks but none seemed to yield to the other: Twilight grumbled and suddenly stepped back to then jump forward: Vadous crossed his arms in an "X" shape to shield and blocked the kick: Twilight jumped back and rushed for Vadous as the former headed for him as well: they clashed their helmets and stepped back.

"Grah! What an echo!" Twilight cursed.

"Whoa! It sure echoes." Vadous muttered.

"No more heating up! I'll beat you up like Liquid did atop Outer Haven!"

"If you can, that is. Hire his motion actor to teach you CQC." Vadous taunted back with a snicker.

"Nya~h!"

"Neko Virus V 2010 02?" Omega taunted.

"You're the feral cat!"

"Depends." He didn't fall for it.

Twilight shut up after fuming and waited for Vadous to make a move but Vadous didn't do anything: Twilight ran out of patience and rushed forward with the right fist but Vadous stepped to the left and quickly got behind him: he tackled him to the ground with the right shoulder and quickly placed his legs around his neck to add pressure there: Twilight began to punch the legs but Vadous didn't react.

"You're no better than Akiba." Vadous taunted.

"WHAT?" He roared.

"You got stuck in the same position."

"I'm not a rookie!"

"Akiba said so as well!"

Twilight snarled and warped again before drawing a laser whip and flung towards Vadous but he calmly caught it and pulled it to drag Twilight closer: Twilight let go of it and Vadous skid a couple meters backwards due to the pulling force he'd applied: Twilight formed a bow and shot an arrow with a bomb attached it for Vadous: he undid the whip and used it to hit the bomb and make it explode in mid-air: Twilight rushed in and delivered a sudden and quick barrage of fists to the torso: Vadous grumbled and stepped back after Twilight finished: he rubbed it with the right hand for a moment.

"Hah! You're not invincible!"

"Did I ever say that to begin with?"

"HUH?" Twilight didn't expect that.

"You were the one calling me "Bruce Wayne wannabe" to begin with to indicate I wasn't all-powerful."

"Fuck. My own words shot back at me!"

"Because you stored them in the daily folder and never bother to look them up again or attach tags to them." Omega smirked.

"Die!"

Twilight formed Beast Man's claws over his hands and rushed for Vadous like he was Beast Man himself: Vadous merely caught them and tore them by applying force: Twilight gasped.

" _Déjà vu_ , I take it? Hikari did this when using Cross Fusion for the 1st time against Beast Man. About… 5 years ago, yeah."

"Sheesh."

"If you need Beast Man so badly, rescue him from the Net Prison."

"Why should I? Beast Man was but a savage! Ended up consuming too many Dark Chips and was taken over by them!"

"Yeah. Both you and Regal provided him with those in both "Universes"… Although things turned out different here on the day of Video Man's debut…" Vadous shrugged.

"I knew that! I used that knowledge to alter the course of events!"

"Because you wanted to have a duel with Kanou Shade."

"Yeah! Because I realized after Needle Man's debut that the man had followed me here…! So I challenged the man…! And I could've destroyed him but Her Grace's commands impeded me from…!"

"Blame Anaya, then."

"SHUT UP! DIE!"

Twilight then formed a Drill Arm on his right hand and rushed for Vadous again yet Vadous grabbed that drill and applied strength to it to crack it and delete it: Twilight cursed under his breath and resumed using his fists and kicks to fight Vadous: he suddenly delivered a string of kicks to the waist area that Vadous couldn't block: he exhaled and held on place.

"Hah! You can't dodge these!"

"And what if? I already said I wasn't perfect. Nothing is perfect."

"IQ – sama is the pinnacle of perfection!"

"Huff. That motto felt like an ad banner… Always being told that once a week… I soon grew to hate it…" Vadous rolled his eyes, recalling.

"Hmpf! But I realized that accepting it would be a proof of my eternal loyalty!"

"Loyalty? That's not loyalty. That's being a servant. The Boss would give you a million lessons on what "loyalty" is about. "Be loyal to myself", as she said."

"Gruh…! T-that character is uninvolved!"

"I wonder about that. Maybe you actually are an idiot who falls for very simple traps." Vadous smirked.

"What! This is a trap?"

"Of course not. It's just a taunt. Are you literal?"

"Eat this! Die!"

Twilight suddenly formed a Stinger missile launcher but Vadous grabbed it and aimed it at the ceiling: they began to pull each other to try to steal it from the other and one missile shot and hit the energy field: it exploded but did no damage altogether: Vadous stepped back as a plasma shot hit it and made it blow up: Twilight gained some wounds and some fragments stabbed his body and face yet they soon were deleted: his wounds quickly healed as well.

"I'm like Vamp! I can easily heal!"

"Hum. Looks like you learn the lesson. Back when your debut season it took several hours."

"Grrr! I hadn't perfected the system yet! Morons! Buffoons!"

"You're Anaya's buffoon to begin with. By the way. Maybe Opoulos is actually a triple spy and caught Anaya to be promoted." Vadous suddenly suggested.

"E~H? IMPOSSIBLE~!" He gasped in disbelief.

"If you don't hurry…"

"IQ – SAMA~!"

Twilight rushed for the shutter covering the broken window: Vadous quickly exited the room while Omega remained: he made his boots turn magnetic to attach to the ground as Twilight forced the shutter to open triggering a sudden decompression: he was sucked outside and the shutter soon fell down again: the pressure got stabilized and Omega de-magnetized his boots.

"Good thinking, Boss. Sakurai gave you the idea, no?"

"Yeah. If Ocelot was a tripe spy in MGS3, then…"

"And now Anaya will yell at the rascal for believing that. And maybe that'll stir up paranoia between them. Serves them right."

"Totally. Oh well. I'll ask Kir Osh to do an EVA and repair the outer glass: I need to strengthen the energy field… By the way… Iris? Are you done with the beasts?"

"Yes. But I didn't want to interrupt you. I found some data on them: Alphabet letters… They say "JOOU", that is "QUEEN"… Surely something Anaya stuffed there to laugh at us." Iris detailed.

"Obviously. Remember to ignore her threats if she uses the Darkloids to make them because most of the time they're bluffs. And Twilight can already use the "Bestialize"… He's got no reason to target Trill."

"Understood. I'll go back to his side."

"As for me… I need a break. I think that those guys have run out of ideas by now and they'll go back to their usual small-scale stuff while they try to come up with something new… In the meanwhile, though… We can design a strategy to catch them all in one fellow sweep…"

"OK, Boss…" Omega calmly nodded in approval and grinned.

"Let's later have a Smash Bros. game as well. Been a while."

"Heh. I won't make it easy! My Ike will give your Snake a run for his bucks." Omega got in the mood.

"That's the spirit, man. Heh. Let's forget about those losers and have fun!"


	15. Chapter 15: Seasonal winds

**Chapter 15: Seasonal winds**

09:17 AM (Japan Time), Saturday February the 3rd…

"… So… Omega says the season end's come, right?"

"Yeah… Like always!"

"Good. Let's focus on the upcoming exams."

"Of course."

"And in the meanwhile… Bloody~ Shadowy~! I'm the Earl of Ugliness!"

"Hah, hah. How original, Sigma."

The twins were sitting in the chairs in front of their desk within their bedroom and talking with Sigma and Blood Shadow: Sigma was cocky, as usual, while Blood Shadow was calm and collected.

"Hey. Guys. It's me." Isaac called out.

"Password?" Blood Shadow asked.

"It's coming from another dimension."

"What is?"

"Nothing."

"Good. You can come in."

"Nelaus wanted to ask if we could gather at the park for a chat."

"Sure. Let's go, Netto – kun."

"OK!"

Both picked their PETs and headed downstairs to put on the sneakers and the coats: they exited the home and headed for the park: Nelaus was already there, waiting for them.

"I thought it'd be more comfortable to meet in person."

"Sure."

"Aha-hah! I knew it! You have a Super Ultra Mega Perfect Rare Chip! Gimme one!" Dekao suddenly rushed in.

"Huh? What gave you the idea, Ooyama?" Nelaus sighed.

"My Chip Nose!"

"How original. Patent it for some RPG." Netto sighed.

"Gimme that!"

"Why should I?"

"To become Akihara's Savior!"

"We ARE the Net Saviors, you know."

"No! There can only be one savior! Ooyama Dekao – sama~! With the blessing of my masters!"

"The Maha Ichiban's staff? Sheesh. That of "disciple" was something you forced them to do. And they lost in purpose to shake you off. Didn't you realize that when you fought Burner Man?" Netto sighed.

"What!" He gasped.

"Reality is cruel but such is reality." Saito dully added.

"Tee, heh, heh. Dekao~… You're such a gullible guy!" Yaito giggled as she walked in.

"You set me up! Yaito – chan!" He grumbled.

"Yep! To prove I'm smart!"

"Nobody questions that. But shouldn't you be focusing on the training to become a respectable and capable leader of Gabcom Inc.?" Saito asked back, unsurprised.

Yaito gulped and nervously looked around: the others (save Dekao) sighed in defeat and rolled their eyes.

"Hi~! Nelaus – ku~n! I'm glad you called for me~!"

"I didn't, Aura – chan! I'm sure Miss Ayanokouji did it."

"You again? Sheesh." Tamashita sighed.

"Had the hunch…" Felicia rolled her eyes.

"Guts, guts. Guts Man will become Ultra Man, de guts." Guts Man suddenly let out.

"I fail to see the point, sir." Glyde politely argued.

"There's none. It's a scam." Blood Shadow told him.

"Scram-scam!" Sigma made up a silly pun.

"What's up today?" Hikawa joined them.

"They said there was something to discuss, desu." Ice Man muttered.

"Uh… Hi, everyone…" Eboshi timidly joined them.

"You called everyone?" Saito asked Yaito.

"Yep! The party's not complete sans the club!" She grinned.

"It had to be you." Enzan grumbled.

"I shall make no comments." Blues dully muttered.

"The Queen of Pranks is your enemy, eh, Enzan?" Laika joked.

"Laika – sama, sir… What is the point of it, sir?" Search Man asked.

"There's none." Blood Shadow sighed.

"Had the hunch…" He confessed.

"What's with this ruckus? Yaito – chan, you again? Sheesh." Meiru complained.

"Who else?" Roll fumed.

"Got excellent news! Miss Joke & Co. is about to recruit excellent brilliant super ultra-magnificent staff!"

"Too long." Everyone (save Guts Man, Glyde and Dekao) complained.

"Too great to express it in simple words!" She laughed.

"Beef! Tuna! I'm the savior of the cattle and the fish! Commander Nature, on the scene!"

"HUH?"

They all looked atop the jungle gym to see Commander Beef standing there and saying stupid stuff.

"An evil soul devours your kindness…"

"UWA~H!"

BLOF!

"Ugh…!"

"Sheesh."

A sinister voice had rung out behind him and he jumped off the jungle gym, scared, to fall into the sand: he groaned as Miyuki silently appeared there: her face was immobile and she had her usual unwelcoming glare on her eyes.

"Mi… Miyuki~! Don't scare me like that!" He complained.

"Someone has to purify you from evil temptations."

"Protecting nature is an evil temptation?" Skull Man grumbled.

"Ah. I thought he was saying to overcome nature."

"Did you cleanse your ears?"

"Eh…" She suddenly blushed and lost her composure.

"Guess not." Skull Man concluded.

"MASU~! Nelaus – kun! A blank check, I offer you a blank check!"

"For what? The "Bestialize" Chips? Can't sell them: they only work for Isaac, Mr. Higure!"

Higure ran in next and waved a white piece of paper in front of Nelaus, who sighed.

"Yamitarou! You moron! A blank check is not a white paper! It means that the other person can withdraw as much money as they desire!" Number Man explained.

"Is that so, masu?"

"Miyuki… Do you really believe being so creepy will attract further customers to your store? You scare them!" Saloma discussed.

"Sa-Saloma!" She gasped.

"What. It's not like you don't see me every day."

"N-no, b-but…" She muttered.

"What?"

"What perfume is that?"

"Perfume? I don't use any. Must the fragrance of some tulips I was watering a while ago." She shrugged.

"Tulips… Maybe that would attract customers?" She wondered.

"It's worth a try." Wood Man encouraged.

"If that'll make her behave…" Shark Man shrugged.

"Ah, the fire of the youth…" Dr. Wily chuckled as he walked in pulling his trolley filled, as usual, with empty cans.

"Does that include us?" Yuriko asked as she came in with Dark Miyabi.

"When's it?" Dr. Wily chuckled.

"FATHER!" She got annoyed.

"Huh? I didn't get it." Needle Man frowned.

"I didn't, either." Shadow Man admitted.

"Don't bother. It's a worthless troll." Miyabi replied.

"Mind if I join?" Scherezade asked.

"Sure. Some air will do well before their exams: that's when they get nervous and stressed and no wonder." Roll shrugged.

"Mwah, hah, hah. Exam – Maxe!" Sigma made another pun.

"How original." Blood Shadow was hardly impressed.

"Oh well. Next time… We'll show those guys what we're really made of! Right, Netto – kun?" Saito got animated.

"Of course. If Meijin – san invites me to knock-out _ramen_."

"Ramen Glutton dropped by the town?" Meiru giggled.

"Nope. Ramen _Connoisseur_." Tamashita joked next.

"Why not?" Nelaus chuckled.

"Ramen Master!" Yaito suggested.

"Quit it with the titles…" Netto laughed.

"Let's create "Miss Title & Co."…" Saito grinned.

He patted Netto's back and both laughed…

11:29 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Thanks for the help."

"It's nothing. There was little staff here today so…"

"We should've done that before but it slipped us."

"Don't worry, Annihilator Man. If you guys need a maintenance scan just tell me."

"Meijin – san, Colonel – san has come."

"Allow him in."

"Roger, sir."

"Good morning. Ah. It's been a while, Annihilator Man."

"Indeed, Colonel."

"Maintenance, huh? Guess I'll soon need some as well. Will do well to put some order to my cache and my archives."

"Did you meet Xon' Edos on the way here?"

"Did. Said he would drop by later."

Meijin had been talking with Annihilator Man as he took care of the maintenance of the other 3 "Rama" Navis of Balrog, Axe Man and Destruction Man: Colonel joined them and they began to talk.

"Reclaimers, I have windy news." Spark joined them.

"Windy news?" The 3 of them wondered.

"The Oracle of Winds will bring us the Mistral."

"Mistral? But that's a strong, cold, north-western wind that blows into southern France into the Gulf de Lion in the northern Mediterranean… Why would it appear in Japan?" Colonel argued back.

"Is that so? I thought it was a type of vessel."

"That's correct too… There's the Mistral-class amphibious assault ship of the French Navy…" Colonel admitted.

"Hmmm… Then who posted that in that RSS feed named "Windy News", I wonder? Some passionate of the winds? Wind Man, maybe?"

"There's a Wind Man registered in Shiisaa Island belonging to a priestess there, but… Database suggests he's the serious type." Meijin checked the database.

"Cloud Man. Who else?" Annihilator Man sighed.

"Vexation!" He got annoyed.

"Well. That should help reinforce the impression that Neo Gospel isn't that deadly. It's profitable for us." Colonel shrugged.

"When you put it like that, then… You've got a point."

"Meijin – san? A gentleman named Xon' Edos requests entrance."

"Good. Allow him in."

"I have news… Cloud Man was pullulating near my vehicle." He got straight to the point.

"Hmmm… First he makes up another stupid RSS feed and next he's scouting…" Colonel rubbed his chin.

"He did not come closer than 35 meters because that is when my defenses activate. Yet I think he would have beaten those. As I told you before, I had to improvise those using Battle Chips and Viruses."

"True. But the outer shell itself should hold him back. No?"

"Of course. The energy field covering it can absorb and contain their anti-matter "bunshin"… Their power is too small compared to that of my energy field."

"Hum. Alright. But keep an eye out just in case. You never know."

"Of course."

"Scan 98% complete…" Meijin told Annihilator Man.

"Good."

"Hmmm? There is a curious banner up there." Spark spotted.

"Banner? What? What's that? "JINMEI – AMAS' DEVOUTED 666 NEOPHYTHES EAGER FOR BATTLE!"…" Colonel read.

"Cloud Man again! They pulled something like that in their debut season too using a commercial plane to pull an advert banner!"

"Really." Colonel fumed.

"What is "Jinmei – amas"?" Xon' Edos wondered.

"A stupid anagram!"

"Anagram… When the symbols that make up a word have their placement changed, was it?" He seemingly recalled.

"Yeah. "Jinmei" is "Meijin" and "amas" is "sama"… So it actually says "Meijin – sama's"… That is, me."

"Neophyte?"

"Neophyte is an old world to depict a warrior that has finished training but has yet to experience a real battle or war. Nowadays they usually says "novice", "rookie", "green", "newbie"… Some still like to use because it's an exotic word." Colonel explained.

"Why 666 of all numbers?"

"There's a popular belief in the West, especially Europe, that this number depicts evil… I don't know why. I always found it to be so irrational and over-used…" Meijin explained next.

"So. Cloud Man means to say you have 666 apprentices that wish to have a battle and they all are "evil"."

"Yeah. It's gibberish, nonsense."

"Indeed it is. So illogical. How can a Network Navigator like Cloud Man tolerate that?"

"Twilight must've set up his AI program to like those. Twilight was originally human, after all. He passed that into Cloud Man. Maybe he intended to use that as a means to make others take them lightly… Like the Cut Man Brothers… They appeal as strong but are pretty weak."

"Ah yes. Some leftovers of the original "Gospel"… And who have a grudge with Rock Man…"

"Now it'd seem we've finally made them realize that grudge is pointless, somehow." Meijin sighed in relief.

"Meijin – san, I fixed a couple glitches in the app you gave me, sir."

"Oh! Thanks, Obihiro – kun."

"It's nothing, sir."

"Ah! Scan 100% completed… No abnormalities picked up. Good. I'm going to wake them up. Could you go to another spot to keep your chat? We don't want to start an all-out discussion."

"Of course not. Let us go, Colonel."

"Yeah. Let's go there."

"Mugro~h… My flames are mild! I need to make 'em burn!"

"Not here."

"I know, Axe Man! Don't take me so literally."

"Hmpf."

"Now, now! Guys! Now's not the time to do this…"

The "Rama" Navis woke up: Balrog stretched and made a comment that Axe Man interpreted as literal: Destruction Man tried to calm them down, sighing.

"Order!" Annihilator Man ordered.

"Roger!" They all saluted.

"Axe Man! Don't be so picky. That's an order!"

"I offer no excuses." He bowed.

"Don't disappoint me."

"Roger, sir."

"Greetings, Reclaimers. Skull Man says that he provides the ultimate solution for hangovers." Spark told them.

"Hangovers?" The Navis wondered.

"Oh come on! Spark! That's Cloud Man as well! Don't you realize?"

"Vexation!"

"Navis can't have hangovers to begin with."

"Ah… That was something that happened if you drank too much alcohol… Was it not?" Annihilator Man recalled.

"Yeah. But there's no Navi equivalent. Thank goodness."

"Hmmm? A Reclaimer named Connery says that you need a swift hand to steal something." Spark suddenly said.

"Sean Connery? That's got to be some parody by Cloud Man…"

"Vexation!"

"Lovely." Annihilator Man sighed.

"Shall I bring you their head, my Lord?" Axe Man offered.

"Shut. Up." He got annoyed.

Axe Man gulped, for once, and his two pals sighed.

"Focus on something productive. PRODUCTIVE! Huff! Thanks for the help, Meijin. We'll be leaving now before we get in your way… Let's go! And you stay quiet."

"Meijin – san: a call from the Not So Evil Quartet, sir."

"If it's Cloud Man then I'm gonna show 'im what I'm made of! Hello?"

"Whoa! What's with the mood, Meijin?"

"Ah. Hino. It was you. Why that name?"

"Dr. Wily – sama said so…"

"I suspect Cloud Man."

"Knew it…" Madoi sighed in the background.

"It was to be expected." Maha wasn't surprised.

" _OH MY GOD_!" Count Elec yelped.

"Sheesh." The Navis complained.

"Those clowns again?" Dr. Regal stepped in and sighed.

"Apparently…" Laser Man ventured.

"My, my. It'd seem those Wall Street sharks never sleep." Yuuichirou distractedly muttered as he walked past.

"Hakase…! We were talking about Cloud Man and…! Huff."

 _Whatever! If ya dare to show up then I'm going to give you a lesson!_

16:45 PM (Honolulu Time), Friday February the 2nd…

"… Mwah, hah, hah. I'm 4th already!"

"I'm 2nd… But the 1st has 3 red shells… I'm afraid he's going to use those the whole time or he's gonna throw one at me. I can try letting the 3rd one go ahead of me and get hit once but chances are that I'll be attacked next…"

"Heh, heh, heh… This is a 150cc online race!"

"I knew that. And it's the 2nd lap."

"On Koppa's Castle, no less!"

"Yeah, I know."

Cloud Man and Philip (wearing his usual civilian outfit) were sitting in a sofa inside of a room and playing _Mario Kart Wii_ together: Cloud Man controlled a car with Wario on it while Philip controlled Luigi: the rest of the cars were other online players taking part.

"Oho. Someone's let loose the Stinger!"

"You mean the blue shell. I'll brake so that I don't get caught in the explosion…"

"Boom! SNAKE~!" Cloud Man imitated a yell.

"Stop imitating Liquid and the Hind D battle."

"Heh, heh, heh. I'm 3rd now!"

"And I'm 1st. And the last lap's begun."

"Mwah, hah, hah. Item box!"

"Triple mushroom."

"Triple green shell! Not bad! By my might and night!"

"That your best shot?" Philip rolled his eyes.

 _Oh well. Today I'll spend a while here and then go pick up Cody to have our usual stuff… Heh… No – one can imagine it! I'm so smart…!_

"Oho! Close to the goal… Ugh! You got there first! Heck!"

"Too bad! Let's make another challenge… Heh!"

"Fine~… Let's make another! Rainbow Road is next!"

"Huh! Rainbow Road… Level's increased… But not gonna chicken out… Gotta look out not to crash into obstacles…"

"Mwah, hah, hah. Maybe Mew's around here."

"Mew? Why?"

"'Cause it looks like the final PKMN Snap stage! Snap Snape!" He made a stupid pun.

"Oh come on. What a lame pun."

"Ya never know!"

"Race's about to begin. Want to be left behind?"

"Of course not… I'm going to borrow the teleporter!"

"Stop trying to appeal as cool and race. 3… 2… 1…"

"F-Zero!"

"Sheesh! Start!"

"Turbo mode on! I'm gonna smash Samurai Goroh!"

"It's Mario Kart, not F-Zero!" Philip grumbled.

"Cloud Man! Behave!" Freeze Man grumbled over the radio.

"Yikes!"

"I heard of the ruckus you started up! There'll be TALK! Later!"

"Oh heck." He grumbled.

"You got it coming for always starting up some mess." Philip fumed.

"Bapgei~… Do something about that!"

"Like I can. I've got no authority and you know it."

 _This guy's turning dumb or WHAT? Grah! Gotta focus! Race, race!_

"Gruh! I'm 9th! Focus, focus!" Cloud Man gasped.

 _You got it coming for behaving like a dumb moron… Anyway… Nelaus… Next time… You won't escape our battle so easily… Heh, heh, heh…_

16:58 PM (Honolulu Time)…

"… So. Kranos. Anything new?"

"I managed to start a feud between NSA, NRO and the Ameroupe Net Saviors…"

"Oho! That sounds fun."

"It is. I merely fueled existing tensions and jealousy that were floating all over the place…"

"As usual you have an eye for those things."

"Of course, Miss Anaya. I've been in the FBI long enough to realize the true nature… Each of them wants the glory for themselves. So that their budget increases… But not for development purposes… But for the big fishes… So that they can buy more and more expensive caprices and then show off…"

"Heh! So that's the true nature of them."

"Indeed! I'm witness to that. And as you can see… I decided to go along with the flow… But to use that money for something far more interesting… To create "Deadly Pandora"… My international mercenary org… A bit inspired by Big Boss' "Outer Heaven"…"

"You hadn't told me that. Interesting."

Anaya and Opoulos were talking in his office: Anaya was pretty interested while Opoulos was calm and collected.

"What about Mr. Twilight?"

"Ordered him to take a one-week break. Gave him my copies of the MGS games and challenged him to clear them in Extreme mode… With no kills… Of course: since they've been completed before… Then he can use weapons and stuff collected in the first play-through…"

"I see. That should help him disconnect."

"Yeah. And I think I'll tell Freeze Man to run some maintenance on the guy. He tends to forget or ignore that like any Navi, he also needs a body and mind maintenance."

"Good. What about that young miss that worked for you?"

"Kataka, was it? Bah. Use 'n throw pawn. Was useful but I didn't want to waste my energies hiding the gal anymore. I'm not going to rely on more gals like that." She shrugged.

"Understood. I thought as much."

"It was obvious."

"My sources indicate that Mr. Morgangantz and Mr. Blackdesu are searching for us in Taiwan. My latest "leak" had the desired effect. They're getting desperate for clues as well."

"Heh! The Analog Snatcher and the Digital Snatcher… _Halman_ and Lucky Luke… Halman being the fusion of Dave Bowman and HAL 9000… As described in _3001: The Final Odyssey_ …" She smirked.

"Indeed."

"The tea." Izono came in.

"Good. By the way… What about Gondwana, Marco? Did any curious ones drop by there?"

"No. The sensors reported nothing. Just in case… I had Freeze Man send Zoan Gate Man to place new sensors… Why don't we destroy it, my lady, if you fear it being discovered?"

"Nah. I want to keep it around as a tool to haunt Nelaus… It may not work but you never know."

"Gate tried to do so, ma'am, and failed."

"Gate was a moron who was too full of himself. He was good at building stuff but not at reading people's personalities. Even less those of women… He was but a Navi I built… Nelaus did well on burying the guy. Was starting to get so shameful: seeing a creation of mine be so lame that no – one will remember him…" She shrugged.

"I see. But with your knowledge, my lady… You would be able to."

"Yeah. Besides. I already laid it out on that publication I made. Let's see if anyone will end up believing it."

"If you shall excuse me…"

"You'll go practice the Mexican Dance of Victory?" Anaya laughed.

"No, my lady." He got slightly annoyed.

"Oh that face!"

"Yes, my lady."

He calmly left the room but not without grumbling under his breath: Anaya giggled and Opoulos sighed.

"This is Freeze Man… I started the other Darkloids' maintenance, Cloud Man included… Zoan Gate Man will patrol the surroundings." Freeze Man reported.

"Good enough. Did you give him an ice cream?"

"No, IQ – sama. I fail to see the point, ma'am."

"It's a joke!"

"No offense, but I'm not fond of them."

"Don't worry! You just tell them they don't have desserts tonight. Because Desert Man stole them."

"Oh please." He groaned.

"Tee, heh, heh."

"Understood!" He fumed.

"Miss… I fail to see the point too. Why annoy them?"

"To test their loyalty. If it's a crappy thing they'd surely insult me in some form or start yelling at me."

"I think that their programming doesn't allow them to but…"

"You never know! Well. I'm going to have a dive… Keep on stirring those guys out there to fight each other."

"Delighted."

Anaya exited into the corridor and giggled under her breath.

"Hmpf! Vadous… I won't make it easy for you to catch us… Next time I'm going to show you my serious CQC… Tee, heh, heh, heh…"

 _I'm going to show you not to underestimate me… I'm a genius… And I'll prove it to the world… Look forward to the next "season", Vadous…!_

22:22 PM (Japan Time), Saturday February the 3rd…

"… So, Boss?"

"I've been thinking yet… There's still a factor to take into account."

"What?"

"Opoulos…"

"Ah! True…"

"We might be able to deceive Anaya and Twilight with our operations but… Opoulos is another tale. The man might get suspicious."

"Huff. Now it's turned complicated again."

"Things in life are always complicated."

"I knew that. It's just that…"

"We were about to get too cocky."

Omega and Vadous were having another planning meeting in the observation room: Vadous had brought a portable plastic chair to sit down while Omega stood to his right.

"Fine. So…What do we do instead?"

"We'll have to talk with the "Committee" and organize the strategies together… Chief Lezareno was in the NRO for a lot of years. He knows about that world. And Colonel Botos is former Air Force too. They've got their connections. Maybe they could know how to set up some scenario that even Opoulos believes on it…"

"Opoulos strikes me as very mercenary. Maybe if he hears there's a demand for mercenaries in say, Eastern Europe, he could divert his attention there. I'm sure he hasn't given up on Deadly Pandora even if all of his execs and men are jailed."

"Hmmm… Maybe. But then again we MUST talk with the "Committee"… They have far more experience that me, obviously enough. I might be 27, but… That's the body… You know that I've only been alive for 11 years… 1 and something was spent learning… So I have less than 10 years of experience on the world… That's why we need the "Committee"… Their long experience and connections are needed…" He sighed.

"Alright. Take it easy, Boss. I'm not saying we rush in tomorrow! We'll take as much time as needed."

"Good. Remember: patience is the key here. If we screw it up… We lose this chance… And we don't know when a new one will come."

"Yeah… By the way… Annihilator Man passed a message to Sigma and Blood for us…"

"What does he say?"

"That he's noticed Dark Land agents tailing him."

"Dark Land again? But wasn't there a revolt and that General guy had to flee into exile? The civilians got power back, no?"

"Maybe those are exiled Navis too…"

"Hum. Fine. So Dark Land Navis, maybe exiles, are prowling around. They must want to try to put pressure into us. Or maybe someone found out what the General guy was after…"

"We should spread a rumor that it was stolen by Neo Gospel. So those rascals will do us a favor and blow those _amateur_ spies up in our stead… Hmpf!" Omega shrugged.

"Dark Land asides… What about Westminster? What's their stake on things by now?"

"Rumors float around that it was a campaign set up by the current government to appeal to patriotism and get re-elected. About 20 idiots began a protest in front of it demanding to know how many taxpayers' money it took to set it up. The Bobbies dispersed them, of course."

"Really. Some people have a terrible reality distortion field and come up with unbiased conspiracy theories… They must've taken MGS too literally, even." Vadous rolled his eyes.

"Sure thing. Like those who say there are Illuminate conspiracies… I think they took _Biohazard 4_ too literally…"

"Huh? But wasn't the cult group named "Los Iluminados"?" He recalled.

"It means "The Enlightened Ones", yeah… But I think they're inspired by the Illuminati."

"Sheesh."

"I know. It gets really annoying."

"Let's switch topics. Did you help Iris with the updates?"

"Sure. At Trill's request we added _Lord of the Rings_ dwarves. They are NPCs and give out hints. They don't battle either."

"I see."

"Iris asked me to lend her a PKMN game and I gave her a DS and the Soul Silver game I had. I'd already completed it so I let it to them with the condition that they continue as it is and don't start a new game. Iris will watch out for that." Omega explained.

"Good. Trill's a child so he's at an age to play a lot of things. But make sure they're fitting for his age."

"Iris takes care of that."

"Good. Did Kir Osh say anything about that step-brother of his?"

"Nothing else's happened. Guess they gave up on trying to use him to start a scandal."

"OK. Did the "Committee" report if there was any connection between that mafia in Barcelona and Anaya?"

"There wasn't. Besides. Choina and Japanese mafias can't stand each other to begin with."

"You've got a point."

"So I guess that was beyond Anaya's involvement. She's busy enough trying to control some of the mafias here. Some Yakuza have been starting wars to take over the mafias too… They say Metropolitan Police dispatched a very competent veteran inspector named Kenmochi to handle things over there…"

"Like the designer?"

"Ah yeah. There was such a designer, true…"

"Wait a minute. Inspector Kenmochi…? Coincidence…? There's a character in the _manga_ series I'm reading named like that… Kenmochi Isamu… From the Kindaichi Case Files…"

"So maybe it's a fake…? But Kenmochi is a pretty usual surname, too, as far as I know…"

"Could be. Maybe I'm being paranoid. Forget it."

"OK."

"Anyway… Anything else?"

"Ah! True, true. It'd seem Vincent's back to stuff."

"What?"

"Colonel Talos decided to visit him in person and he began to let it all out: that Cloud Man drops by with requests from Anaya and takes away all drinks but water so that he stays sober… He's led to believe they're also for the sake of his "General Campestre" so…"

"And what has he done insofar?"

"Infiltrate the Mexican drug cartels and manipulate them to meet in spots where there supposedly is a VIP who wants to buy stuff… And they kill each other while he makes sure to vanish beforehand… And then Neo Gospel pick the drugs and sell them in California…"

"I see. So that's how they get the money… Oh well. As long as they don't use him to impersonate someone we know…"

"Sure. Did you try out the Altair costume in MGS4?"

"Of course. I found it so fun that they included that. That, and the Solar Gun… Snake yelling "taiyo~!" the whole time makes me laugh so hard. Really. They sure put a lot of love into that."

"Heh, heh. Oh well. I'll later have a check around the outer shell to make sure nothing's attached to it. Kir Osh did the EVA but just to be on the safe side…"

"Good. I'll be going to my room. I need proper rest or Lartes will ground me for overworking."

"Yeah, Boss. Don't let those rascals rob you of your sleep."

"Gotcha."

Omega blinked him the right eye and Vadous smiled as he stood up and exited into the corridor.

"Fua~h… Need some proper rest!"

He entered a nearby room that had a desk, a chair, a bed, and a TV plus an adjacent bathroom: he sat on the chair and began to take out the pieces of his armor: once he'd finished he stood up with the remaining black briefs on: he headed for the bathroom and looked at the mirror above the sink.

"I don't know what I hope to achieve by looking at me like this. Maybe it's some psychology in which I'll be a real human if body hair grows? But then again… There are some men around my age who have little to no body hair or they shave it… "Twink" was the word, no?" He muttered.

He remained like that for a minute or two and then shrugged to head back into the room.

"I worry too much. Like Omega says… Now's not the time for that. Like it matters… Let's focus on something else."

He searched next to the TV a pile of music CDs but didn't seem to find one that appealed him: he rubbed his chin and frowned.

"Hmmm… My Beatles CD…? Ah! I lent it to Charles a couple days ago, true… Oh well. Maybe something else… Nah. Let's just go rest." He decided with a shrug.

He sat on the edge of the bed and pulled the coverings: he remained in that position for a little while as if he'd gone back to thinking.

"… Let's hope nothing happens while I'm asleep… No, I don't think so. At the worst, some hit and run by the rascals… Little stuff… I should ignore that and prove it doesn't impress me by now."

He finally laid face-up on the bed and pulled the covers up to the neck while placing his hands behind his head: he stared at the dull metallic ceiling for the room for a while.

"… Judgment Day will eventually come… For those… And this time… They won't be able to run away from their sins… And I'll fulfill my goal… But it won't go easily, obviously enough… Well! For now… Time to rest!"

Vadous finally fell asleep while forming a wide grin over his face…

 **THE END**


End file.
